


No Safe Haven

by Salty_Dog



Category: Jak and Daxter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Post-Canon, vomiting mentions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:31:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 49,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9853943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salty_Dog/pseuds/Salty_Dog
Summary: For the tumblr JND horror week prompt: Zombie AU.The zombie apocalypse but every time someone gets bitten it goes faster.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea came to me and then became a lot longer than intended, My bad?

Ashelin ducked down, finger on the side of her pistol itching to be put on the trigger. They were out there, the citizens of Haven turned into a threatening mob that couldn't be calmed down and dragged anyone close enough into joining their ranks. Infected, it started off slow then quickly started to decimate the population into becoming little short of monsters.

She took aim at what used to be a harmless old man, if she shot him the whole street would come after her and she might not make it out.

Besides, it's not like eco even worked on these things.

He looked wrong, ill, but she felt more disgusted by the way she couldn't suppress her desire to destroy him. He was sick, but he was still a person, somewhere under whatever haze he was in there was recognition. A distinction between himself, his fellows who were sick, and people like her. Not to mention recognition of basic objects. After all, if you have no concept of how houses work why do you go for the door in trying to get in? Why look for one?

Besides, she wasn't ready to give up on them. On any of them.

She would get her city, her people, her friends back.

A clawed finger pushed down firmly on the barrel forcing the muzzle down, a common occurrence lately, followed by a glare.

Ashelin nodded, putting her gun away. Even if she was inside the attention of every one of them within three blocks wasn't a good idea. She knew what they could do. She followed him away from the window overlooking the street deeper into the dusty house; even with all the remodeling of the city she never managed to get all of the old slum buildings.

“We need quiet,” he said, his voice low as he could possibly make it.

“We _need_ a way out,” she shot back, her voice louder but still lower than a casual speaking tone. They weren't super human in hearing after all.

“We can take the roof.” he pointed out a different window, one over an alleyway that had a roof slanting down beside it. Only problem was it was too high to reach.

“How-” but he had already jumped, feet scrabbling for purchase before he clambered onto the roof fully, turning around to lay down and stretch his arm down as far as it could go and twitching his fingers in her direction.

Ashelin hefted her bag of salvaged goods firmly over her shoulder, slipping her pistol back in its holster. She bounced on the balls of her feet before stepping onto the window frame, and standing as best she could on it outside.

His hand was too far away for her to grab, and a little too high for her to use as a foot hold. She needed to jump.

It was a solid drop to the garbage bins below, which would certainly bring everything crawling towards them. Ashelin took a steadying breath and lept.

For a split second she looked up, into the eyes of the person supposed to catch her. In a rush it hit her how bizarre the situation really was. The Governess of Haven had been rummaging through someone's house in order to steal food, the city itself was perfectly fine for once but the people had all caught something which made them crazy, and she was so unwilling to deal with them that she was about to try and use the rooftops to escape them, with the risk of certain death.

But even more than that, she had just trusted a metalhead to keep her from it.

Her fingers slipped past his wrist as gravity hit her. Her stomach twisted as she started to slip downwards. He'd dropped her. She knew it as her bag started to lift slightly, gravity not catching up to it yet. Panic started to hit her.

His hand closed around her hand and Ashelin tensed. Her fingers dug in and gripped him as hard as possible. She started to pull, both in an attempt to get up faster and prevent her arm from getting jarred too much. Even so she hissed her breath in as her bag snapped down hard on her shoulder.

For a moment everything stopped as the new added weight broke the balance, tipping them closer to the alley, but then it passed and Ashelin’s other arm had time to reach up and grab his shoulder before he started to pull her up. His other arm catching her thigh and dragging her up in one quick swoop has he rose to his feet, with a small huff of exertion.

He backed up slightly, maybe to regain his balance or to pull them away from the edge before he let her touch the ground.

Akrim then took a step back and shook himself off slightly, bag on his back strapped on tight enough it didn't even make a noise, and jumped to the next roof.

They kept moving, leaping between rooftops and crouching to not be spotted by anything below, or at least Ashelin did, Akrim was small enough walking around on all fours.

They had collected a fair amount, ropes, food, water, ammo, weapons. But it was better to return later rather than sooner, so at the next breachable house they checked its status on the map, to make sure it hadn't been hit already, and broke in.

Even if they didn't find anything she always wanted to check, there was always some quiet reminder of a better life, and once there was a terrified kid, not much older than eleven who they brought back to the shelter. She didn't want to chance leaving someone behind in this.

The house was solid, and Ashelin noted the floor didn't creak at all, a mixed blessing. It meant nothing inside could hear them, but the same was true in reverse. She unholstered a gun from Akrim’s bag, checking the corners and each doorway. Her pistol was fine but required time to aim; in close quarters she didn't have that luxury, so out came the big guns.

It seemed to be an abandoned office of some sort, perhaps a private psychologist by the way the rooms were set up, but the business downstairs must have been a food provider of some sort as there was a storeroom with vast amounts of nonperishable foods; cans of tomatoes, fruits and other sorts, rice, dried beans, cloves of garlic, ginger, dried spices, boxes of packaged goods, but most importantly, canned meats and peanut butter.

Without farms proteins were hard to come by; and that was hard enough when it was just people, but she had her suspicions that her metalhead would require meat sooner rather than later; and with the infected off the menu and blocking the farms the only source left was something she'd rather not contemplate.

She marked the building down as high priority and grabbed a few cans to return to Akrim with. She'd need him to carry all the supplies they had found before now and she wanted to sweeten the blow; maybe convince him to take on more than his usual limit.

She backtracked to the psychologist’s rooms, slowing as she heard noises, and opening the door carefully.

It was a scene of carnage with bits and pieces scattered across the floor, though the only victim was a chaise lounge. It's stuffing ripped out by claws, but mainly teeth it seemed, as Akrim was viciously tearing strips of it away, cottony flesh and skin from wooden bones, his claws gouging out chunks from the frame.

The door opened all the way and Akrim dropped his mouthful to turn his attention to her. He was tense and short of breath, but after a second and a quiet whirring noise he was back to normal, sitting with his paws together.

She pointedly looked around, then turned her gaze back to him, raising an eyebrow and putting a hand on her hip.

“Looks like you were having fun.” she said, stepping into the room.

“Stress relief, I was feeling…” he looked around a little at the pieces all over the floor while he tried to find the word he wanted. “Frustrated.”

“This might help,” she tossed the can at him and he caught it, glancing down at it before staring at her. “It's for you.” she said.

“Oh, thanks.” he looked at the can blankly for a moment before reaching back towards his bag to put it away.

“No,” Ashelin cut in, “It's for you.” she waited for a second before realising he wasn't getting it. “Eat it. It's meat.”

Before she had even really finished talking there was a crunch and a small metallic screeching noise as the tin was ripped apart, lurker shark meat splattering out for a moment before it was consumed, the metal acting more like tin foil for all the good it did.

He hadn't even spit out the can, just swallowed it too. He was staring at her almost expectantly and Ashelin hurried to pull out the other can and throw it to him.

He blinked at it in surprise as he caught it. “You must have found a lot,” he said, flipping it around in his hands.

“Yeah,” Ashelin admitted, shrugging off her bag but not moving her eyes off the metalhead.

He understood what that motion meant and stepped off the ruined lounger to lay on the ground, keeping his head down and staying quiet as Ashelin moved beside him and started rearranging the contents of the bags.

Most of the time he'd stay standing, but he must have sensed her discomfort, or perhaps he just wanted a rest. In either case she quickly got the task over with; shifting everything to fit together and squeezing in as much as she could in, taking out items she might use and putting them into her bag instead, replacing them with the found supplies.

When she zipped up the bags Akrim raised his head and turned to check his bag was closed before getting up, adjusting to the new weight.

Ashelin waited for him by the door, before gesturing for him to follow and making a beeline straight for the store room.

A heavy paw on her shoulder jerked her backwards and a metallic head was on her shoulder, with a breathless snarl.

“Ashelin!” he hissed, and pointed to a door that was open just a crack across from the room she wanted, she didn't remember opening it. She readied her weapon, focused on the door as Akrim quickly checked the rooms behind them, there was no taking chances. Akrim returned and stuck close to the wall as Ashelin stood in the middle of the hallway, taking point.

She walked forward, gun trained on the small gap. It was dark inside, the light not at the right angle to reveal anything inside. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Akrim had grabbed a cushion from another room and was preparing to use it as a buffer. It seemed like metalheads could get infected, but from there it didn't seem like they could pass it on.

For now at least.

Akrim crept forward and slipped his tail forward to press on the door cautiously, ready to pull back at a moment's notice. The door creaked open slightly and Ashelin for a fraction of a second could spot a large bulging eye from a disgustingly pale face, the pupil dilating. It bashed the door aside opened its maw and shrieked in a deadly charge forward.

Ashelin shot. The net fired from her gun with enough force to push it back and Akrim charged after it with a snarl, slamming it back into the room into the dark where a sound of a heavy smash into the wall followed. Ashelin finished reloading when a snarl followed after the crash. More than one. She kicked open the door, following Akrim’s line of sight to aim down at the floor. The vague shape didn't move so Ashelin sidled over to the light, flicking it on.

The body lay still on the ground, and in the light it was easy to see the stain around it as dried blood. After a few seconds she lowered her gun. They weren't getting up.

The infected on the other hand was still screaming, though it was muffled somewhat by the cushion jammed into its face, arms trying to get through the net to lash out at the nearest living thing.

“Clear,” Ashelin said, checking the hallway. She switched back to her pistol, locking the door behind her just in case.

It was a fairly large bathroom, toilet, sink, no mirror however. She supposed this was connected to a psychologist’s office after all, perhaps that was standard. Maybe one day she'd find out.

The toilet was in a stall, one with a lock and everything, though she personally didn't see much point considering there was only the one. Ashelin turned her attention to the still wailing infested, it's thrashing smacking the walls.

“The netting didn't catch the arms right.” Akrim informed her, “I'm going to break them,” he said, waiting for her reply.

“Do it.”

Crack, and then another, while they were more powerful than the average person against a metalhead it was still nothing. Ashelin had no qualms about breaking them, eventually they just repaired themselves. In honesty it was smarter to destroy them, but she couldn't yet bring herself to accepting it.

Akrim gestured to to the body on the floor, “Should I handle that or are you fine to?”

She turned to look at it, her stomach twisting a little. She opened her mouth to lie and say it was fine, but she stopped and sighed.

“Swap,” she said, and Akrim waited for her to get into position before he traded places, letting her restrain the infested instead. Even with the net it was a struggle to keep it muffled and motionless.

Akrim rolled the body over, careful not to touch it too much.

“They've been here a while. Single bite to the neck, pretty deep,” he said, craning his head a little, “looks like it came from behind.” there was a rustle of fabric, and Akrim gave a huff. “Looks like they had the same idea as us.”

Ashelin turned her head to see Akrim holding up a bag that was partly stuffed with cans. He peered into it.

“Already unzipped,” he commented, “seems like they were filling it up in the store room when they were attacked from behind.”

“And dragged into here,” Ashelin added.

“Any signs in the store room?”

“None.”

A troubling silence fell between them, there wasn't a reason for a simple infected to do that, and if the victim did it in panic then there would be more signs of a struggle. Neither of them wanted to acknowledge the only conclusion.

“There’s dried blood on its hand,” Akrim pointed, “I didn't do that by breaking it.”

Ashelin looked down at the currently useless appendage, the nails and between the fingers coated in blood.

“It held its hand over where it was making the wound,” Ashelin said. “That's why we didn't find any in the hallway or storeroom.”

Even with the infested thrashing Ashelin and Akrim were still.

“It could see us,” Akrim said, “In the hallway, it was waiting for us.”

“The storeroom was bait.” Ashelin said, voice getting low and sharp.

“It was going to wait, until we started packing and then-” Ashelin slammed it against the wall and Akrim fell silent, turning back to the body as Ashelin seethed.

She didn't know how she could have fallen for something so simple, the allure of food blinding her of the need to check every room. But when dealing with infected it was normally a room by room basis was the best way to do it. When you alerted one that was it. This was a game changer, if one could do it they all could, and it might lead to having a lot of infested in an enclosed space with a baited room right beside it. Hidden hordes so that even if you did pick the door that wasn't a trap you could be overrun.

Ashelin aggressively smashed the infested against the wall for a bit, gritting her teeth together. This just kept getting better didn't it.

Akrim padded up to Ashelin quietly, showing her the gate pass he had taken from the body. Joseph; it read, showing his picture and other personal details.

“Another confirmed dead, we should take it back with us,” she said, slipping it into her pocket.

“Alive, actually,” Akrim replied, “Infection is keeping him alive, barely, but he'll pass on soon enough.” He tilted his head slightly, “Should we help him?”

Help was a vague term.

Ashelin took a deep breath in, putting a hand to her forehead.

“Yeah, I... have some green eco. It's in my bag.”

Akrim didn't need anymore prompting and opened her bag, pulling out the vial.

“Anything else we need to do here?” he asked, saying, “once we do this we're going to have to leave, quickly.”

“Check this guy for an ID, then we should block one of these sinks so they can have some clean water at least.”

There was a plug for the sink and Akrim turned on the tap before he started checking for an ID, patting down the pockets before pulling a wallet out of their jacket and showing Ashelin the insides. A driver's license, some other odds and ends, and a few photographs. It seemed to be of a happy couple and their child, playing in a park and using a swing set. Ashelin couldn't tell which parent the infested person was supposed to be, and in a way she didn't want to.

Akrim turned off the tap, returning to Ashelin.

“Do you want the net back? I'll hold them and you pull,” he said, standing up to replace her.

“Yes.” She exchanged places with Akrim again, shaking out her arms. If with the net it was this difficult without it might be too much for her.

It took a bit of effort, and the infected seemed angrier than ever but finally the net scraped free. She wrapped it up, pouring some rubbing alcohol on it before slipping it back into her bag. It might need to be properly disinfected later but this was fine for now.

Ashelin unlocked the door, and took the vial back from Akrim, before hesitating, thinking of anything else to do before having to face the body on the floor properly.

She grabbed a can of peaches, opening it and leaving it on the changing table. Now they had food, water, and hopefully a secured location. Ashelin tested the door, it opened inwards and as far as they knew the infested could work a door knob now. She pulled out a screwdriver, quickly taking out the doorknob and reversing it, so it locked from the outside.

That seemed to be everything, and Ashelin turned to the body. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, the bite was deep but it hadn't ripped his throat apart and there were no chunks taken out of him.

She uncorked the vial, ready to leave if things turned ugly.

“Wait, put him in the stall. You can lock him in. If he's turned immediately it gives you an extra moment.” Akrim growled as he struggled with the one on the wall, it trying to worm it's way past the cushion.

She dragged him in, sitting him up and locking the door before she climbed over the gap to the outside, hanging on the side to pour green eco into the stall and onto him.

She watched it work, green flecks burning away the ugly wound until it was just a shallow cut. His eyes stirred and he took a deep breath.

“Joseph, can you hear me?” if he could at least tell them what happened before he turned then it'd be worth the eco she'd spent.

He twitched and blinked, eyes unfocused and staring at the ceiling, hand reaching up at some unseen spot.

“Joseph,” his eyes turned to her, and then his face contorted, he was too far gone and Ashelin jumped back as he shot up to screech and claw at her, wood cracking from the sudden smash against it.

“Go!” Ashelin shouted, skidding out of the bathroom, kicking Joseph’s old bag out of the way ahead of her.

Akrim snarled, throwing the other one into the wall as he dashed away, deserting the cushion behind him.

They slammed the door shut behind them, Ashelin locking it and backing up to catch her breath as Akrim scratched down the hall, dragging the wrecked chaise lounge up and snapping off the legs, jamming it in the door frame.

It wasn't pretty, but it did the job of effectively saying, _Keep out_ , as good as any sign.

They glanced down the hallways as the monsters behind the door howled and smashed against it; but there didn't seem to be anymore coming. Ashelin pulled out her net gun and checked the other rooms and their hiding spots just in case, but there was no one else in the upstairs area.

Leading the way, Ashelin returned to the storage room, waiting for Akrim to follow her before she locked the door behind them and holstered her gun, taking a deep breath and sinking to the floor.

She stayed like that for a moment before checking the time. They started a little before dawn, which meant they had been running around for over six hours straight. It was time for a break.

Ashelin slipped the bag off her shoulder and kicked off her boots, leading Akrim to stand up and wait for her to unclip the harness that kept his bag on before he shrugged it to the floor, stretching as Ashelin dug around the shelves for something to eat.

“Meat’s here,” she said idly, picking up a can at the shelf she was standing in front of. She wasn't too fond of canned lurker shark though, so she put it back, rooting around for something else. In a box she found what she was looking for, it was stuffed with packages of cured meat. She took some of the jerky and started looking around for something else, grabbing some crackers and one of those long lasting fruit puree containers meant for kids.

She turned with her spoils to spot Akrim with his paws on the top shelf, seemingly sniffing at something, tail flicking slightly.

“What’ve you got there?” she asked, and he passed a jar over to her, smooth golden honey inside. “I see,” she said, examining it a little. He grabbed another jar and then reached up to try and grab a third.  Ashelin complained, “you need more than that,” but it seemed like there wasn't anymore anyway.

Akrim searched quickly for a moment, before picking up a bag of salt. Ashelin raised an eyebrow.

“You can't have all that salt,” she said. Akrim opened his mouth to comment but Ashelin continued, “That's not a challenge.” Akrim put back the salt.

After a few moments he had picked out some pickles instead, and Ashelin shrugged, unlocking the door and sauntering past the barred door; the frantic banging and screeching reduced to a dull thumping and wailing instead, and into the room not filled with fluff and wooden slivers, taking a seat in the chair and putting her foot up on the coffee table. Akrim took the sofa, setting his items down on the other side of the table.

“I'm starting to think you just like jars,” she said, as he opened each of his containers with overly loud and satisfying pops.

“I'm starting to think you just like plastic,” he replied, and she looked down to her collection of plastic wrappers and containers.

“Touche.”

Ashelin combined her crackers and meat, enjoying her miniature sandwiches and fruit snack, undoing her belt and button she put her hand on her stomach, just under the hem, feeling the small welts where her clothing was resting. She drank her fruit puree from its plastic container and sighed, slouching and rubbing her stomach.

A tinkling of glass caught her attention and she turned to see Akrim holding the jar and seemingly trying to stuff his face into it, rapidly emptying it of honey.

She boredly watched for a moment, not exactly seeing much due to the angle, before she picked up the second jar of honey, reading the back of it for lack of much else to do.

The font for the cute text was too hard to read so she didn't even bother trying after the first word or so, but it seemed in that time Akrim had finished his container of the stuff and was quietly staring at her, but when she stared back for a bit he turned his attention to the other jar instead, chomping on some tiny pickles.

Well if he ate it so fast it was probably good, but that was something for later. She put it back down, making her tiny cracker sandwiches again, idly focusing here and there as Akrim lounged and chewed.

“Can I have one?” she said finally, pointing at the pickle jar.

Akrim held it out and she fished out a pickle, breaking it and combining it with what she had.

“Mmph, that's it.” she said, finishing the rest of it before handing one to Akrim, who took it.

From there it was a sharing of meals until finally the meat and pickles ran out, with idle comments about what'd make the meal better, Ashelin voting for cheese and beer.

“Not for the alcohol, but more because it's kind of relaxing to have something that's sort of bitter like that. It's refreshing.”

“I think that's the alcohol.”

“No it's not. It doesn't happen for vodka and that has more alcohol in it. It's just getting through one feels nice, even if you don't really feel any affects from it. It's… meditative in a way.”

“I think I've heard of that."

“Yeah?”

“Alcoholism.”

She threw a plastic wrapper at him. It bounced off and hit the floor but it was close enough. She leaned back in her seat, before deciding to try the honey, grabbing a cracker and dipping it into the jar.

It wasn't bad, perhaps it'd be too sweet on it's own but she didn't mind it. Akrim followed her lead and it was another lapse of silence while they focused on eating.

This would be a time where she wouldn't mind if there was a TV to put on for some background noise, maybe something to do with sports that she wouldn't have to pay much attention to, since they repeated everything important after a while. Something like racing wouldn't be the best unless it was the really low tier ones where nothing happened, maybe something more like a crocodog contest, or a rodeo. She'd even settle for a cooking show.

Ashelin got the last cracker of the packet, putting a fair amount of honey on it before she ate it and that was the end of that. Akrim drank the brine from the pickle jar as Ashelin picked up the plastic, shoving it into the empty honey jar and putting the lid back on it. She did the same to the other jar, at which Akrim shifted a bit uncomfortably.

Ashelin froze for a second before glancing down, confused for a moment.

“Oh, right, you still wanted this,” she said, giving it a little shake before she popped it open.

Akrim reached out for it, trying to take it from her, but even though she held it out for him to try and take she didn't let go.

He tugged on it for a second before getting off the couch and coming closer to take it properly, sitting politely and reaching up to try and take it, but Ashelin just altered how she was holding it to make it harder to grab. Akrim gave her a long suspicious look, then reached up with both hands to try and take it. But it didn't budge.

“Human leader Ashelin,” he said, measuredly, “Please give me the jar.” He gave it a little tug.

“I don't know what you mean,” she said, smiling and holding onto it tighter. He struggled with it for a moment, trying not to infringe on where her fingers were.

“Let go of the jar.” he said, trying to pull the jar in different ways, including gently trying to twist it.

“I'm holding it out to you, look!” she said, bouncing it slightly and letting out a small “ack” noise as that made her fingers slip a little allowing Akrim more room to grip it. But she held on tightly.

“Ashelin,” he said, sounding slightly distressed, and he tried to maneuver his claws so that they wouldn't dig into her as he tried to pry her fingers away. Making small upset noises when he couldn't manage to.

She laughed a little, if he really wanted he could just take it from her, he was more than strong enough, this was more to see just how far she could push her luck. But it was pretty fun seeing him frustrated and getting away with it.

Akrim dropped the jar and huffed, head drooping a little bit as he stared at the jar. This was about as far as the joke could go and Ashelin was about to just hand it over when Akrim gave a little lick to the honey inside the jar, barely using the tip of his tongue, stopping to glance up at her for her reaction.

She didn't quite expect this, but she found herself curious anyway. She put her feet more solidly on the ground and leaned forward a little. After all, how many people get to see how a metalhead eats? Most of the time Akrim would furtively stick to himself, but when he had to eat with someone else he would tend to replicate whatever they were doing, instead of what he'd do out of sight.

She wasn't sure if anyone else noticed, unsurprisingly most people weren't keen on spending time alone with a metalhead or even acknowledging they were allied with one. Most civilian Havenites avoided even looking at him, the logic of: if they didn't see it then did it really exist?

Akrim seemed to resign himself and ducked forward, lapping lightly at the honey and keeping his paws on the floor. He was being rather delicate, or perhaps cautious. It was sort of weird, not exactly bad but just weird, like how she imagined feeding a crocodog would be like.

She had a bit of control over how fast he could be, by tipping the jar towards or away from him, or just pulling it back slightly, making him have to inch forward.

She kind of liked it.

His tongue was pink, and longer than she expected, as she soon found out as Akrim got to the harder partly crystallized honey at the bottom, scraping at it with enough force that Ashelin had to square up her shoulders a little more to push back.

The fun was wearing off, leaving mixed feelings of a vague unease, and an increased awareness of Akrim’s teeth; how close they were to her fingers and how easily he had sliced through a metal container with them.

A particularly forceful push forward made her arm pull back and suddenly claws were making themselves known on her arm, keeping it from pulling back as he growled at her.

She flinched. The hand that could move yanked backwards to shield herself. He froze, and she didn't get why till she realised her hand was on her gun, half out of it's holster.

For a second, nothing. Then the thick claws on her arm retracted into tiny pinpricks, and slid off of her. She dropped her gun back into it's holster, trying to keep her breathing calm and steady.

She dropped the jar on the table, and after a moment Akrim picked it up and retreated to a corner to finish it quietly. Ashelin got up,throwing the other jars in the bin and exiting the room.

The hallway was quiet and Ashelin did her belt back up as she walked. That was stupid, what was she doing, she was treating him like a mixture between a pet and a friend, like the worst that could happen was she'd get knocked over. Then when he shows he's not she tries shoot him.

She glanced back to see him following silently, not looking directly at her, trying to be as unassuming as possible.

She overreacted, he just wanted the jar, it's not like she was being attacked...

This time, at least.

She put on her shoes, closing the door and locking it once Akrim was also in before she got down to organising food, trying to maximize space and grab the most valuable items. Akrim helped, moving the heavy items from the top and acting as a box cutter.

They worked in silence, Ashelin taking out the spare bag from hers and tried to squeeze in some of the smaller and heavier boxes. After two bags were filled Akrim started to try and put on his harness, managing to get it on. He laid down to let Ashelin manage putting the two bags on his back.

She however was still sifting through supplies, because now they had four bags, the one from Joseph getting a dose of disinfectant before Ashelin filled it with with goods. It was a very large backpack, which suited her just fine. It would make getting things out of it more of a chore, but she had ways of making it work. Besides, it would be better for trying to jump across rooftops.

Akrim wriggled a bit when Ashelin put on the second bag, ready to stand, but instead getting surprised with a third, at which he turned to stare at her, affronted.

“I'm going to carry this,” she said, hefting the backpack onto a shoulder.

“Two for each of us then,” he said, wriggling impatiently. “That's fair.”

“This is fair,” she said, “I'll be wielding the gun and another bag would just get in the way. Besides, you're stronger than I am.”

“I was not made for transporting things, a metal beam is stronger than a stick but I wouldn't make a campfire with it,” he countered. “My bags wouldn't hamper my ability to hold the gun as you do, if that's the only reason then I should do it.”

“You think you can use a gun?” she glanced at his paws.

“Wanna find out?” he said reaching out a hand.

“Oh honey, Tess does the gun testing around here, I don't.”

At the word honey Akrim glanced away to look around the room before realizing it was a name she was calling him.

Ashelin smiled a bit and shook her head, breathing out a huff before she became serious, unlocking the door. Akrim staggered a little as he stood up but otherwise seemed no worse for wear. They exited the storeroom, closing it quietly behind them.

The hallway was silent though Akrim slowed by the barricaded bathroom, leaning his head in close to listen, Ashelin did too and heard the sounds of water being drunk, albeit sloppily, and the sound of footsteps as one of them milled around and kicked an empty can.

Ashelin’s eyes went wide and Akrim nodded to her before carrying on. This was proof enough the infected still had basic needs, visual confirmation unnecessary.

It meant without access to water or food they would slowly start to die. They still had basic needs, they weren't monsters, just really sick. If a cure was to come, the sooner the better, obviously, but without living people who were infected a way to prevent it would be more difficult. Everyone had their own ideas but no one knew what caused it, and that meant no idea how bad it could get.

They walked down the hall, opening the door to the downstairs. Ashelin had no trouble, but the floor creaked slightly under Akrim’s weight, and so he had to remain quietly standing on the stairs as Ashelin checked out the store downstairs. It seemed to be some sort of mixture between a health store and a corner store. Selling everyday items you might need to run off for, like shampoo, bread, milk, but with a high amount of those, “all natural, environmentally conscious” goods. Hippie garbage, as her father would say.

The front windows were smashed and the shelves of food had been raided, and one tipped over, but there was still a few shelves left mostly untouched with only a few items thrown to the floor. A torn sign stated that all goods had been made by companies that were such and such and didn't support this and that. It was a bold statement to make in Haven, but considering how she didn't recognise half the brand names it could be true, especially if they were self made companies.

The street wasn't clear enough to justify exploring the store or venturing out of it, so she quietly returned upstairs, trying the other stairway.

It lead out into the other street, this one empty. She motioned Akrim down, and closed the door quietly behind them, taking note of the street name and any key features. The door was unassuming, embedded into the stone wall with not much to set it apart unlike the store a little ways away from it. She almost missed it but there was a tiny placard beside it, metalic but dull, engraved with the words, “Psychology clinic”.

They hurried down the street, looking for an entrance to the sewers. It was the safest way to travel and the only way of getting back to base. The next street however was crawling with them, so they retreated back into the clinic and onto the roof, to carry on from there, Ashelin consulting her map for what little good it did. The undercity had always been a mess, and it only got worse as time went by.

They kept a sharp eye out as they departed, traveling across rooftops and trying not to attract attention.

The main street had swarms of them, staggering and milling about, a few sprawled upon the ground, some dragging themselves along it.

There was a stench of sickness, uncleanness that made Ashelin feel like she would be contaminated just by being around the air they stood by. She knew this wasn't the case, just breathing the same air wasn't enough to catch the infection, they knew that much at least.

One vomited and Ashelin turned away from the road, searching for the best way forward, though she already knew it was the barrier at the end of the street, separating one district from another. The gate outside was another option, but it was loud and people had tried using it to escape the infection, leading to a horde both inside and out.

She hopped to the next roof, Akrim landing next to her with a thud, and they both ducked against the lip of it as they heard one of the infected make a noise, after a few seconds of silence they glanced over to the next roof.

It seemed one of them had been lying on the rooftop and had gotten up at the noise. It was now standing on the slanted roof, swaying slightly and listening for more noise. If it saw them there would be trouble, so the net gun would be an issue, not to mention it didn't have anywhere to pin it to.

The roof they were on was in need of repair and together they pulled out what pieces were loose, Ashelin picking up a sizeable chunk and taking aim. She threw it and it hit the infected in the head, making them spin as they fell off the roof, landing with a particularly wet thump.

They ducked down and waited, hearing the same noise of question from the other infected, and their footsteps as they walked towards their fallen member. They didn't dare peek yet. And they could hear the noise of question continue from down the block, the infected congregating towards the noise. After that it was only footsteps towards the point, but eventually some footsteps started walking away.

They peered over the lip of the roof. The infected from the roof hadn't seen them, or if it did it was either dead or had quickly forgotten due to the fall. There wasn't time dwell on it though, as it had created a distraction that was quickly losing interest.

They headed down the fire escape, and dashed across the road, trying not to make an excessive amount of noise. It was possible to be seen and get away without raising alarm, just so long as you were far enough away from them. If you were too close they could just tell you weren't one of them, though what that distance was varied. It was a bit shorter if more were milling about, almost like getting lost in a crowd.

They made it across the street without incident, ducking around corners until there was another way back to the rooftops. A few had tried to follow and identify them but they were too far away.

They jumped between the gaps in the roofs, between flat and slanted ones, the slanted ones were more dangerous- though easier to land on, as the tiles could be loose. Ashelin had to skitter to grab one she displaced by landing too hard on the tile above it.

They only had two blocks left to traverse as Ashelin dropped down on a roof with a surprising clatter. Someone had nailed tiles to tin slats and called it a roof, which wasn't up to code at all, obvious by the fact when Akrim landed on it the tin rectangle burst out from the roof and dumped him over the side with an almighty clatter and crashing noise.

Ashelin held her breath. He had apparently hit a garbage bin, and it's lid rolled away from the mess before landing with a soft clang against the ground. For a moment all was silent and still, and then the infected made their groaning noises as they peered into the alleyway, investigating the noise.

Akrim ducked and tried to stay silent. The bins were the same colour as his plating and perhaps he was hoping the alleyway was dark enough that they wouldn't really be able to make him out in it; it didn't work

Shrieks of alarm started to fill the air, and Akrim struggled to get clear of the debris as the infected ran at him. His claws had punctured the bin and he was ripping at it to try and get free. He wasn't going to make it and Ashelin whipped out her gun and fired, the shot unaimed and grazing one of them.

Ashelin shot again, getting the head. The force of the bullet enough to send it spiraling into the wall. The second infected who had gotten grazed turn around at being hurt and was snarling at some unseen attacker now looked up at her, screeching. The one shot in the head staggered to its feet before falling onto the wall, she had only gotten it's jaw, and it screeched too.

If they hadn't been heard before, they were now.

Akrim pulled free, smacking the bins out of the way as he jumped back up, tin roof coming unrooted and Ashelin stumbled and had to stagger up it as it came apart under her feet.

She grabbed onto Akrim’s bag for support as he struggled up himself, jumping up at roughly the same time she used him as support, helping her slam her stomach into the next roof and roll over the lip of it, Akrim scraping up and tripping over himself to get to firm footing.

They staggered forwards into a sprint, there wasn't enough time to regain their balance before they had to jump to the next roof, the whole street howling.

Ashelin landed into a roll on the next roof before running a few paces and having to jump again, landing hard on a slanted roof, grabbing the peak to retain her balance and twisting enough to look behind her.

A horde was on the roof, chasing them down. They had climbed over themselves in a massive pile that the rest had then climbed over.  She ran. Frantically climbing and jumping across the rooftops, in the street below a horde chased them too, even the street main street on the other side had done it, blocking off any side paths and scrabbling across rooftops. The only way was forward but in the way was a massive concrete building, no windows on the side they could access, just a few houses down from them now.

She landed on the roof in time to see Akrim backing up from peering over the side, it seemed that option was blocked and Ashelin didn't even have to look to see they had no time left to head to the side, there wasn't anywhere to go from there either.

“Get this stuff off me,” Akrim said quickly, “Without anything there's a chance I could make it!”

Ashelin got onto his back, grabbing the net gun and loading some rope into it, tying the other end to his harness. “Jump,” she said.

“I won't make it- We won't! Off! At least one of us should have a chance to live!” He jittered from foot to foot, glancing back at the encroaching danger.

“Just do it,” Ashelin spoke loudly above the deafening noise approaching and Akrim scrunched up, checking back a few times before he jumped, leaping off as the infected swarmed onto the roof.

His momentum didn't take them far, not even reaching half of the height they needed to go; but it was enough. Ashelin fired the net gun, the net digging in and around some feature on the roof, rope attached to it, an experimental feature of Tess’s that wasn't ready yet but didn't impede the gun.

And then they dropped, hard. Ashelin grabbing onto the rope attached to Akrim tightly, knees squeezing together, tensing in upon herself. The rope went taught, yanking on Akrim’s harness, the mechanism inside the gun, and the net; smashing them into the building. There was a metallic sort of crunching noise from the gun and the net buckled. Ashelin started to climb the rope, ignoring the raspy screams, choking and other noises from below, the rope couldn't hold forever and she'd rather avoid death.

It took less than a minute to get to the top, even after fiddling with the gun to see if it retract the rope and pull them up. Akrim however wasn't so skillful.

He scratched at the wall, trying to gain purchase on it before struggling with the rope, unable to get it and just twisting around painfully. He kicked off the wall and finally managed a solid grip on the rope, pulling himself off a little before he got his feet on it, making some actually process.

There was little Ashelin could actually do since he was so heavy, but she did vaguely demonstrate a better way for him to climb, but in the end he sort of ended up relying on the gun to wind some of the rope to make a foothold that he pushed off of, or he was just so slow that the gun’s pathetic winding speed caught him.

She said vague encouragements before Akrim finally made it to the net and collapsed in a heap on the roof.

Ashelin quickly got her net and rope back before making a test shot, the net drooling out of the gun. It was thoroughly out of commission.

“It's broken,” she announced, stuffing it into her backpack, “But we won't need it, let's get moving.”

“No,” he groaned, presumably under his breath.

She walked to the other edge of the roof, looking out and trying to find another route. The next rooftop was a fair distance away, enough that she might need a boost, she turned to Akrim but he wasn't following her like usual. Instead he was still laying on the ground, panting. His harness maladjusted, as if he had tried to take it off but given up halfway through.

She stood over him.

“Next roof, this one isn't safe.” The howling of infested punctuated her statement. It had lessened a bit now since they were out of sight, but it wouldn't be long before they made a tall enough person pile up or went through the building up to them.

There was a small noise, and Ashelin checked on her broken net gun, since the noise sounded close, before realising it was the metalhead on the ground, when he attempted to push himself off the ground.

“They aren't that heavy, come on,” she said, pressing her foot against his side.

“Then you carry it!” he spat, tail flicking and not even rolling over to make it easier for her.

Ashelin grimaced but said nothing, unhooking the spare bags.

They were in fact, quite heavy. And Ashelin had to take them one at a time to check if the contents would be okay before she swung them through the air, making them land on the other roof with a loud thud for each. But he was still behaving like a spoiled child just for having to climb some rope. There was something more important than exhaustion to worry about.

Last bag onto the other roof she pressed him again with her foot, and walked over to wait at the edge of the roof, rubbing her neck.

Just as she was about to snap at him to hurry up he pulled himself awkwardly up onto the ledge in front of her, sitting carefully.

Ashelin, waited for him to stand, or offer her a hand, but instead he just sat quietly, even after Ashelin crouched on his back, hand on his harness so she didn't fall.

“I need a boost.”

“You have one.”

It seemed this was the limit to his cooperation, and Ashelin grit her teeth, deciding to hold back until they were somewhere safe. Starting from atop Akrim she just barely made it, fingers on the ledge before she pushed herself up.

She sat and glared at Akrim, who was taking his time lining up the jump. He leapt, but something was wrong and he also had to try and pull himself up, claws scraping as he got his stomach over, but then he gave up for a second, and only when Ashelin started to pull on him did he scrape his legs and tail up and roll onto the roof, laying beside the lip of the roof and making pained breaths that Ashelin could hear, now she was close enough and without the infected drowning it out as much.

She unbuckled the harness with some difficulty, the jolt from the rope apparently warping the clasps a little. As she pulled it away she could see the thick cuts it had made underneath. She winced a little in sympathy when Akrim twitched in pain at her pulling the harness out of them.

“We need to move,” she said, and received a quiet and short whine in response, Akrim’s tail flicking. “It's just to behind there so we aren't seen from the other roof, just a few steps.”

He shakily got to his feet, legs buckling under his weight and Ashelin dug inside her pack for the remnants of green eco and other medical supplies. He limped behind cover and Ashelin dragged the packs with her, dumping them before checking on him, trickle of guilt for being angry twisting in her stomach.

The cuts were already clotting but Ashelin had to ruin their progress by cleaning them out, just in case. Akrim hissed as the disinfectant was scrubbed along his wounds, flinching and his claws coming out before they were retracted again.

She put on the green eco, expecting to have to bandage him up still, but Akrim seemed to be like Jak, the small amount of eco sealing the cuts. Though it wasn't the cuts she was worried about.

She pressed down around his joints, and Akrim squirmed, hand coming out to push against her. They might have been dislocated from the sudden jolt of the rope, or otherwise damaged. The harness wasn't built to hold up a metalhead, let alone four full bags and a person.

Ashelin pressed down in a particularly tender spot and Akrim barked out an “Ouch!” leading Ashelin to shush him, peering out of cover at the other roof, which was empty for now. Their cover also let them peer over the edge to the streets below, still infested with them.

Ashelin kept watch, checking on the neighbouring roof and the street, trying to remember what little field first aid she knew. If something is dislocated it should be moved back into place as quick as possible, then treated similarly to a sprain or tear, iced down, then rested for a long while. But they didn't have that kind of time, Haven was no longer a place you wanted to be at night.

His legs seemed to be in better shape, Akrim not kicking her off when she started to dig around his hip, and since he could stand on two legs that was fine, though he'd need his shoulders to carry the bags that way.

She pressed on his shoulder again, but it's not as if she knew what it was supposed to be like regularly. If it was dislocated and she used eco she could end up really messing him up, but if it was a tear then it was fine.

It didn't seem to be swelling or look different than before, but she still pressed and grabbed his arm to move it about. It seemed like he could grab his other shoulder without too much extra pain on either side, so Ashelin dumped the rest of the eco on him and checked the time.

At best they had a little under four hours, but that was pushing it. They wanted to be back well before sunset, and they still needed to find a way in that wasn't going to be blocked.

Using Akrim as armrest, Ashelin held up her map, comparing it to the streets below. The map was laden with different coloured inks, showing the interconnecting passages of sewers, though in reality some of them were simply water overflow passageways, or channels connected to the catacombs.

Minutes past as she tried to keep her concentration and decipher the map. Slowly the afflicted people in the streets below started to quiet, and a few of them started to wander off, seemingly bored.

Ashelin’s attention focused mainly on them, tensely squeezing her hand and releasing as she spied on them, trying to keep herself out of sight. After a few more minutes even the majority were quieter, pile of them becoming less frantic and wider, spilling out to the sides of the other building. After a minute they seemed to realize the general apathy and started to disperse more evenly, milling about.

Her gaze kept flicking to them in between mentally crossing off dead ends, and she still leaned around the corner to peer up at the other roof and make sure none had made their way up, bringing her fingers together then apart again to comfort herself.

Sometimes one of them would look up, and Ashelin would duck down just in case. Now however it seemed as if they had forgotten the reason for being here entirely, some just laying on the ground beside the building to rest. If the infected stayed so calm then she and Akrim could resume their previous journey over rooftops again, maybe even easily heading through the pass to the next sector, now that the infected had spilled away from it.

Ashelin smoothed circles onto the surface beside her as she planned, looking out at the horizon to try to figure out the nearest path that would taken them back to base. After a moment she realised what she was doing and pulled her hand off Akrim, who was laying peacefully beside her. After a second or two he moved his head to look at her, staring until she patted him lightly, at which he went back to resting.

Ashelin didn't quite suppress the urge, fingers making a slight scratching motion as she checked on the infected yet again, watching one pair fight each other. The squabbling was very quickly ended when they crashing into a much larger person, who smacked them to the floor. The larger person then started to cause a ruckus, and the smaller ones scattered, but not before a couple of them had their blood spilt, beaten out of them.

She turned away, leaning back to look at the sky.

“God…” she took a deep breath in and breathed out, shaking her head. The words not needed.

Ashelin took stock of the metalhead again, resting quietly while being used as a back rest. Well, so long as he didn't mind. Ashelin took off a glove and petted him, skin not rough, but textured. Like if skin had the texture of warped scales but was still skin. Leathery perhaps was the word, but the only leather she knew was smooth and sleek, and a lot thicker than skin.

The only thing she had to compare it to was the skin of a weathered elderly relative, like her grandparents. Skin having an interesting texture with small ups and downs, but instead of flabby it was over dense sets of muscles and in places a layer of fat, but not so much she couldn't press down to find ribs, vertebrae or other muscles.

Another thing that was fairly interesting was running her little finger along the edges of the metal plating. On his chest it flowed seamlessly from skin to metal with just a colour change. The metal didn't even feel like metal, it was completely smooth and solid, but different. Like the difference between touching a wall or a polished wooden table in comparison to a car.

The plating on his arms felt more like expected, but still not quite. There was space to slip her fingers under part of it before it slid to skin. The underside very sleek and almost slippery, though it wasn't wet.

She smoothed away some of her extra energy and stress, consciously rubbing her hands in long streaks across his stomach, checking on his joints intermittently. The eco seemed to have done it's job, Akrim only shifting slightly as Ashelin pushed against his scapula. If anything he seemed to be asleep.

She leaned to the side enough to see him face, eyes closed and skull gem curiously dim.

She supposed it was quiet enough, and the warmth of the roof was soothing, but to be foolhardy enough to fall asleep was out of the question.

Ashelin carefully put her fingers where normally there would be yellow eyes staring at her, probing into the darkened space beside his closed eyes. Instead of skin fine points pushed up sharply against her fingers instead, and Akrim brought an arm up to paw at his face. It seemed there was some kind of fine hair there, and judging by the slight burning feeling on her fingers touching it was a bad idea.

She rested her face on Akrim’s side and ran her fingers back and forth, the dark and her relaxed position easing a headache she didn't consciously recognise forming.

The situation was bad, and the more she thought the less she could focus, but she was at least secure in the knowledge that if any of them started to go after them she'd know, but she still was hyperaware of her surroundings, trying to hear past Akrim’s breathing.

Her hand bumped into plating, but instead of staying in place it moved, and Ashelin blinked, lifting her head and nudging it again. As she was about to push on it properly a hand snatched onto hers and yanked it away. Her other hand snapped to her gun.

“That's private.” Akrim said calmly, placing her hand on her lap and letting go. It seemed Akrim was no longer interested in indulging her further and stepped away, peering down over the edge before looking back.

He stared her down until she realised her hand was on her gun again and dropped it. He let out what sounded like a scoff and Ashelin tensed.

“It's just-” she started to say but was interrupted.

“What is our route, human leader Ashelin?” he asked.

“This building has an entrance to the overflow pipes, might be worth a shot.” She pointed in the direction they needed to go but he seemed too busy aggressively putting on his harness and shuffling the bags.

After a few more moments of needless busyness she spoke up again.

“It's not like that,” she said, “when we ate lunch or just now. I'm a soldier, my first response is to grab my gun.” There was a long pause, “Okay?”

“I heard you,” he said, picking up a bag and slotting it onto his back, Ashelin having to clip it into place. They had spent longer than they meant to on the roof but soon they were heading across rooftops again, dropping down onto the back of a van with a broken lock.

Ashelin opened the back slowly, but there was no-one inside. The air inside was still putrid however, because of a large sack that hadn't been sealed right. It was full of rotting fruits, probably stolen from the market place after hell broke loose.

The inside of it had some kind of waterproofed inard, probably the bag that was put in the stall which stopped anything falling through the wooden slats holding the fruit aloft. It seemed like it would hold and Ashelin nudged Akrim to help her drag it out.

“We hit paydirt,” she said, grinning, and he folded his arms.

“I'm not carrying that,” he said.

 


	2. Chapter 2

A while later Akrim dropped the bag of fruity spoils to the dirt and shook himself as the pipeway was sealed behind them, wheel turned to lock the door it just in case.

It likely never would be needed, the lurker village pipeline was across a huge chasm which always had water raining down from another pipe above, unless you knew it was there you'd never guess.

Ashelin and Akrim scrubbed down with some disinfectant before stepping into the base properly, wooden structures built up and along cave walls and small branching archways into more rocky tunnels were littered here and there. Above them all was the interlocking gate into the real lurker city; the base was just a part that had been disused years ago.

The door was normally locked, they generally weren't allowed into the city at all, just in case of an outbreak. While the sickness infected metalheads, it outright killed lurkers.

Everyone and everything coming in or out of an area with infected people got disinfected, a makeshift tarp put up to mark out areas and provide an illusion of quarantines at least.

As Akrim was unhooked from his burdens he flopped to the ground.

“Not going to help?” she asked, somewhat rhetorically, gesturing at the supplies.

“No.” he said, trying to lay even more on the ground, as if that was possible.

The rotten fruit was the first to go, pulled away to be used in making alcohols, either to drink or be made into a makeshift disinfectant depending on what they needed more of and it was normally the latter.

The bags were opened and Ashelin looked up as someone gave a long whistle.

“That’s-a lot of fish! Many will be thanking you tonight, I think.” The lurker said, crouching down beside her.

“Hey Brutter,” Ashelin said with a relieved smile, “Everything good over here, captain?”

“No problems now, not with this. When they gone, maybe. This all the stash?” he said, helping her unpack.

“Not even close,” She said with a grin. “found an unopened store room, all of it non-perishables.”

Brutter whistled again, a habit he had picked up from someone in camp, “You do good, Governess. Any problem? Brutter wants to go pick it up right away!”

Ashelin’s face grew grim, “Found one that seemed to set up a basic trap. We sealed it in the bathroom with another infected,” she said.

“That's mundo bad. Very bad,” he said. “What else happened? Governess was pretty late getting back.”

“Nothing to worry about now,” she said, finishing adding the new item names to the inventory sheet and handing someone the ID’s she'd picked up earlier.

“We got chased by a horde, and Ashelin made me jump off a building and hurt myself,” Akrim cut in, and waited for a response, when all Brutter did was quietly stare he added “She also broke the net gun.”

“You broke the net gun? Oh no, Tess isn't going to like you right now.” Brutter said to her, and Ashelin gave a quick raise of her brows in acknowledgment and grimaced,rubbing her neck a bit.

Akrim looked back and forth between them for a bit before huffing and snatching up the bag without food, marching off with it. Brutter watched him go until he was out of sight and sneered.

“Metalheader shouldn't even be in village, bad feelings all around since he came.”

“There was bad feelings before he came, there always is,” Ashelin said, perking up a bit when the people in charge of cooking came over to do a proper inventory and put away the food.

“I don't like him,” Brutter said, following Ashelin to the makeshift office, maps slung up on the wall and thin plastic film pressed to a few of them to show points of interest or indicate danger.

“We don't kick out people just because you don't like them,” she said, shifting through what were essentially easily removable and clear stickers to mark down the stache she had found on the main map.

“Nobody likes him. And if Brutter and whole village don't like him then he should go,” he said, taking stock of the map.

“Akrim’s alright,” she said, marking the stache and shifting the infected counters to center around the building she and Akrim had hid on top of.

“Ashelin likes him?” he asked, surprised, and she hesitated for a moment.

“He's a valuable asset to us and in efforts to reclaim Haven,” she said, frowning at the map and scrawling in the time and date.

“But do you like the metalheader?” he pushed, questioning her again and Ashelin looked down, hand coming up to close in front of herself as she thought.

“... Yeah,” she finally decided to say, “he gets easily worked up but I wouldn't say he's a bad guy.”

“Well, if you say it Brutter will try. Metalheads are no friends of the lurker people but I will try for just one.” Seeing her face twist in confusion at his sentence Brutter clarified, “I don't like metalheads, but I'll try to like who Akrim is.”

Ashelin nodded and turned back to her work, writing down the days events in quick sentences and their approximate time frame, leaving space between each one in case someone needed to add notes to it later.

As she headed out of the office to grab the updated inventory from the cooks she heard a shout burst from a side passage,

“ **She did** **_what_ ** **?!”**

Oh. Oh no.

That bastard told Tess.

There was the sound of furious stomping steps and the civilians scattered, which Ashelin considered doing so herself, but short of heading out the sewer gate there was no point.

She headed towards where the footsteps were coming from, hearing the unmistakable sound of Tess’s new metal leg slamming against the ground as she walked.

“You!” boomed the voice from the corridor, Tess jabbing a finger in her direction before marching over. “You broke the netgun! I told you not to use the experimental features! I was still working on it and now we have to start from scratch! Do you know how long it takes to build something like that when you have to make the pieces yourself?! You're lucky the new girl is here because I have enough to do as is! I have no time to keep this place up and running I don't have time for this! What were you even doing! I'll hurt you!”

Tess let out an angry growling screech before panting hard, and when Ashelin opened her mouth to speak Tess’s hand whipped up in a stop motion, and she turned around and marched back to her workshop, mechanical tail thrashing behind her.

Ashelin waited a minute before heading inside, Tess ranting a little, not talking to anyone but more talking at them.

This whole infection deal and moving out of Haven had really changed Tess. She was never shy about expressing herself but she was normally a lot more composed. The stress of the job was really getting to her, she was now the head mechanic, gun expert, and basically the manager for anything or anyone working with metal or mechanical parts. And the last thing anyone wanted to do was drag home hunks of metal when there was more important stuff, like food; meaning Tess was overworked and undersupplied at all times. Her natural inclination to help people and care about them was being pushed to it's absolute limit and she was breaking down. Ashelin would love to give her a break, but even that would stress her out more as the work would just pile up behind her.

In an ironic twist acting more like Daxter when pissed off was really helping her out, now at least when she exploded in a rage she didn't have to fix her mechanical limbs from smashing them into some poor sap’s foot, or from using them like a bat, she just had to drink tea to soothe her throat.

Even now as she kept talking her anger was fading into a resigned exhaustion while she worked, and soon she'd be closer to being the voice of calm reason and slight optimism she normally acted as.

Ashelin knocked on the door and Tess turned to glare at her, eyes tired but still filled with a slight anger.

“What, is something else broken?”

“No, I just came to talk.”

“My throat hurts, so no,” Tess said, angrily undoing some bolts.

Ashelin turned to glare at Akrim, who Tess had been using to bend warped pieces of metal a minute ago.

“I'll go get some tea,” he said, sliding out of the room quickly, passing by Ashelin who was leaning on the door frame.

Tess’s mechanical tail swished over the side of the desk, acting a bit like a pendulum. She'd decked out her leg with a few tools after she lost it. During the confusion of the outbreak it was chaos and somewhere along the way Tess came out missing a few pieces, her leg and tail, but also got some damage to her arm which couldn't be set straight away with eco; so she now had a lump and some permanent scarring. Ashelin didn't know if it was one of the infected or if she just got in the way of a panicked havenite, but she wasn't about to ask.

Tess sighed after a moment, slowing down and her entire body, from her ears down drooped.

“I didn't mean to go off, I just… don't know what's wrong with me,” Tess said, resting her head on the device in front of her.

“Nothing,” Ashelin said quickly, “This situation is the problem, when’s the last time you slept?”

“Who do you think I am, Torn? I got a few hours last night but I woke up in the middle and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up to work instead.”

“You should probably sleep Tess, you'll feel better tomorrow,” Ashelin said, moving to try and usher her away from her work.

“No, no. I have this, then the net gun needs fixing- probably a redesign because oh my gosh, this is terrible, what was I even doing, I can't have a capsule based ammo system and then add a mod for secondary ammo, and I made it a mod at the back of it too, if the mod failed of course it would break the whole gun.” Tess messed up her hair, the back of it a knotted mass from where she kept doing so. “I think it was for dragging the z- infected around, or to hang them up safely out of the way, but that just seems so stupid now.”

“It's not, we just used it the other way this time,” Ashelin smiled, “You did good, it managed to hold up Akrim and I just fine.”

“Akrim and you? That's amazing, that Taryn girl made the part herself but I didn't think it'd be _that_ good, I'm going to need to figure out how much force that was, and then maybe we could make it into a grappling hook, but then we still have the other ammo problem and-”

Ashelin put a hand down on Tess’s back to stop her from getting worked into a stupor again. Tess crumpled for a bit and then just dropped to the desk entirely.

“These kids sure are amazing, little engineers already,” Tess croaked, voice a bit thick. “Taryn’s got blue hair too, not the same colour but…”

Ashelin patted Tess on the back, before spotting a hairbrush wedged away in the workshop and bringing it over to work on Tess’s hair, but Tess waved her off, sitting up.

“I miss Keira,” she sighed, leaning against the device she had been working on. “You too, right?”

“She's handy with machines, she'd be an asset.”

“Shut up, Ashelin,” Tess scoffed, “ _She'd be useful,_ come on, I know you had fights but you’d always be doing her a favour whenever she asked. You can act like a person, you know.”

Ashelin rubbed the back of her neck, “Yeah, I know Tess,” she said. When Tess expectantly folded her arms Ashelin sighed, “I miss pointing out her mistakes.”

Tess swatted at her, “You're such a bitch!” she said, tone ruined by her smiling, and Ashelin laughed.

“That was always fun, but I do, you know… miss having her around. Quite a lot, actually,” Ashelin said, suddenly finding it hard to smile and looking away, rubbing her arm.

Tess curled up, hugging her knees.

“I miss everyone so much,” she said, her voice getting thick. “Torn, Keira, Sig, Jak, Daxie… I hope Spargus is okay, they need to be okay at least,” Tess’s jaw was clenched tight for a moment and she blinked fast. “I wish they were here.”

Ashelin’s throat was dry as she spoke, “Torn and Keira are here-”

“No they're not!” Tess shouted, “Those things aren't them anymore! They're gone! I can't keep pretending like they aren't, there's nothing left of them, Ashelin!” she was crying angry tears, “It's not them anymore, there's nothing left to fix, stop-”

Ashelin was already standing, fists clenched by her sides.

“It's them!” She barked and Tess shrunk down a bit, “It's them, they're just sick-”

“They're dead!” Tess wailed and Ashelin felt her temper flare, slamming a hand down on the bench. Tess was being stupid, she was just tired and overworked and stressed out, she'd see reason tomorrow after a full night’s rest.

“They're just sick! We'll help them! Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about!” Ashelin was getting steadily louder and Tess grew more belligerent in response, standing up and shouting back _,”You never listen!”_ and other words Ashelin didn't process before she was shouting, grabbing Tess’s scarred arm as her tiny claws came out before dropping her and storming to the hallway.

“Ashelin,” a voice said from the other doorway.

“What!?” she snarled, turning to face the intruder.

“I brought tea,” Akrim said, holding the tray politely.

Ashelin stood for a second, panting before she retreated to a chair, sitting down in it.

“Is now a bad time?” He started to say, before Ashelin snapped at him.

“Just get in here.”

He had brought an entire teapot full, and two cups, and though neither of them really liked tea both the girls drank each cupful  given to them.

Tess became more sluggish with each cup, and Ashelin felt a similar effect, after slogging through so many.

Tess sighed, abandoning her project to sit closer to Ashelin and turning when she started to try and untangle her hair.

“I miss Torn,” Tess said finally, eyes closed and laying on her back as Ashelin did her hair.

“Me too,” she said, and that was it.

Somewhere along the way Tess had passed out, and Akrim had left, leaving her to bring back the tray.

As she walked along the corridor she noted a girl who she supposed must be Taryn, her hair done up but with one streak to the side. The girl, upon seeing her, opened her mouth, her eyes widening. Ashelin kept walking as the girl seemed to have some internal panic, struggling to say something.

As she passed her Ashelin turned.

“You're Taryn?” she asked, though more just stated and the girl nodded. “Tess mentioned you, said you made the attachment to the net gun. Good job on it, I broke it but it did save my life today,” she patted the girl on the shoulder, “Keep up the good work.”

The girl saluted properly, and Ashelin automatically fixed her posture and did it back in one firm motion before turning sharply and walking down the corridor.

“Um,” Taryn squeaked after her, “I love you!” she blurted out, before seeming mortified at herself.

Ashelin laughed, “At least take me out for dinner before you drop a line like that.” And she waved as she left, stepping out into the main hub area before dropping off the tea set and heading back to the office to sort through paperwork, dinner in hand.

After a few hours of planning expeditions and probable routes, along with food rationing, weather reports, requests for certain items and maintenance updates she picked up her fork to stab at some of her now cold food.

She hesitated and that's when a paw started pulling her plate slightly.

“Hey!” she barked, “You've had yours!”

“I'm in recovery,” Akrim said, tone a bit playful, “I need more so I can get better faster.”

Ashelin snorted and pushed his face away from her food.

“Get real,” she said, finishing up the rest of her food quickly as Akrim waited, holding onto some papers.

“What are you here for?” she yawned, holding her hand out for the papers and flipping through them when Akrim passed them to her, seemingly just reports from the shift change.

“Brought these over for you, picked up something on the big radio.”

Ashelin picked out the radio report so fast the paper nearly ripped and flattened it out, reading the device print out. It was from the wasteland alright.

“It's Sig,” she grinned, “Tess is going to be thrilled. See if we can get a file sent to him instead of the general broadcast.”

Akrim walked off, taking Ashelin’s empty plate as he left, leaving her to check over the reports and compare them to the ones from the beginning of the day and each other, looking for mistakes or discrepancies.

So far everyone had been pretty honest, being held accountable did that to people. So far nothing had gone missing, but with the arrival of meats and other goods some people might get tempted. So far the cooks were under the most scrutiny, having to mark down everything they used and how much, but that was more due to calculating how much they had and how long they could last.

They were working on gardens but those took time and when you had a blossoming town full of people who need to be fed regularly that's not something you have a lot of.

The Lurker village lost a fair amount of people, and the Haven refugees were certainly helping rebuild infrastructure, but there wasn't much to begin with, or at least nothing Havenites would just pick up on. Most tech didn't use eco, and required a lurker physic to use; strong leg muscles, stronger than her but not quite as strong as Akrim.

He returned, and then left again with the message Ashelin wanted him to try sending.

Ashelin laid her head on the desk, struggling through cross referencing the last of the papers before she filed them, making her own report and tromping to her room.

Thankfully she still had a room to herself, the perks of being important she supposed; though she was reluctant to give them up if she didn't have to.

She slumped onto the bed face first. She remembered after getting in the room that she still needed to bathe and brush her teeth, but she didn't want to.

She felt up one of her dreadlocks, did she really want to have to carefully dry them after?

After sweating going through a sewer all day, yeah sure.

She groaned and slid off the bed to the ground, grabbing what she needed from drawers before peeling herself off the floor to the showers


	3. Chapter 3

“We should do something nice for Tess,” Akrim said, by the door to the outside. “The others will be getting food, so it's fine if we don't.”

“We'll investigate, what did you have in mind, tools?” She strapped the net gun to Akrim’s side; it was finished being repaired before she got up. Ashelin hoped out of the two it was Taryn, and that Tess had slept through the night.

“Tess said something about Vin; good with electronics and power related things, he's in the industrial sector,” Ashelin choked on his words and made a face before she regained her composure.

“Vin’s a computer program, Akrim. He used to be a genius, but he died,” and gritting her teeth she added, “in a metalhead attack against the city.”

“Oh,” was all he said, and Ashelin turned her back to pick out supplies from the spreadsheets.

“So how do we get program Vin over here?” he asked, “or is it unless? Functionally, I mean.”

“I don't know, but that's enough to warrant taking a look.” She checked her pistol before putting it in her holster. “We’ll look for blueprints for the ecogrid too, and any specialized tools. See if Tess knows of any, then ask anyone she tells you might know, I'll see who used to work in that sector and let Brutter know what we're doing.”

Akrim sprinted away and Ashelin turned to her collection of supplies and forwent some objects in order to pack light. The tools were bound to be heavy to begin with and they didn't need any extra weight. 

Soon they were out the door and lifting up the vague covered drawbridge to the sewers, waterfall splitting to let them through before the drawbridge was pulled up, leaving them stranded on the other side.

The route to the industrial sewers was a new one, most pipes connected to it virtually unchecked but unlikely they would see any infected. Most of the route was long, narrow access tunnels; used primarily for small pressurised pipes and wires. 

They had just about reached the elevator up when they heard distinctly unnatural noises, cracking of some sort of fire perhaps, with the sound of banging and sparks thrown in. 

An electrical fire perhaps, not dangerous on its own to the base, but with the gasses and other such things in some of the pipes and hallways it was dangerous, the last thing they needed was an explosion.

“It smells like smoke,” Akrim murmured, slowing down and letting Ashelin go ahead.

She sniffed but all she could smell was the rancid stench of the sewers. There was a sharp corner ahead and Ashelin pulled out the net gun just in case, taking measured steps forward.

“What the- Woah!” The man yelped as a gun was turned onto him, “Watch you swing that thing! Oh hey,” he drawled suddenly, “Don't I know you?”

“Hi, Jinx,” Ashelin said, putting her gun away. 

“Hey, Red, you're looking pretty good considering the apocalypse is going on upstairs. You find a shower down here or something? Cause I gotta tell ya, things haven't been great for me.” 

He looked worse than usual, dark circles under his eyes so large it's like he got punched there, the biggest sign was that he was actually ignoring his cigar in order to talk to her. 

“Been up in the Lurker village, some of the others are there too, Tess for one,” She added, the only person she knew for certain he knew.

“No kidding? I tried heading there myself a while back but the passageway had a whole bunch of them, broke through the floor even so they're just stuck there I think, giant pit of em, and the other route’s no better. How'd you manage? Hell, how'd Tess manage? ain't she a tiny thing now, couldn't believe it.” Jinx chattered on, he'd probably been alone down here for a while.

“Hidden doorway, and I’m glad to see you too, they use explosives in mining, think you can manage?”

“You need something blown up? Alright, I'm your guy, lead the way. Oh uh, on the subject of good to see yous and blondes... is Jakkie boy hanging around? Got a couple scars I never showed him.”

Jinx chattered beside her the whole way back through a few coughing fits and needing to slow down and catch his breath, seems sewer living had done a number on him and he was sick. Ashelin waited for him and got him up to speed, the slow pace not bothering her too much, if they had anything right now it was time. It was still a bit before dawn, so they could mess around as much as they wanted.

Soon they were back at the waterfall and Ashelin pulled a long metal hook out from a pipe and brought the drawbridge thing down as Jinx whistled an sauntered past her to the gate, which opened as Ashelin knocked.

“Gotta admit, this is a real nice setup you have,” he said, scrubbing down as best he could behind a sheet as some doctor checked him for bites. “Got any of this stuff to drink?” he asked, sound of fluid sloshing as he shook a bottle.

“We have alcohol, don't worry,” she said.  “You might not get to have any until you're past quarantine, that's at least a day.”

“Hey, beats having to try and hunt down one of Krew’s old stashes, it's been years and there isn't one that hasn't been picked apart already,” Jinx said before she her the jingling of a belt, him putting on whatever new clothes someone had given him.

“Sounds like you're pleased,” she said.

“Damn right, I get a bed tonight! Oh yeah, nothing’s going to ruin this. Make sure you send someone to look out for the other guys in the gutters too, be great to have someone to play poker with tonight-” Jinx was grinning as he popped out from behind the curtain, the cleanest Ashelin had ever seen him before his eyes widened in horror, mouth popping open.

Ashelin whipped around but the gate was closed and Jinx screeched,

“Ah! Metalhead! Shoot it!” Jinx fled in a panic, running and getting tangled in a screen before careening into a wall with an almighty whump and falling to the floor.

Ashelin and Akrim looked at the heap in silence for half a second.

“Did he really not look behind him the entire time we were walking?” Akrim asked her, pointing at Jinx who was now wheezing and struggling slightly with the curtain.

“We can credit Jinx with a lot of things, but awareness isn't really one of them. Blast bot snuck up on him once, if you can believe that,” she said as Akrim watched Jinx somehow manage to bump into another stand that held up a part of the curtain and tip it onto himself, letting out a painful wheeze before falling silent.

“I can.”

They watched for a moment as Jinx had to be pulled out from the tangled sheets; apparently having fainted, and left.

They emerged from the sewers as light spilled across the sky, allowing them to see in the darkened city. Sticking close to the shadows they got up to the roof tops once more, Akrim keeping watch as Ashelin checked her maps.

The industrial sector was where most of Haven’s resources went to get changed into something useful, hence industrial. Turning cut logs into a table, that sort of thing. In cities where there was more food readily available this sector is where it would be processed, put into wrappers and the like. In Haven however most food didn't and instead went straight to the bazaar to be sold. Kras had most of the industrially processed food, proper factories. Haven had smaller food businesses for the most part. A few bars used to be their own breweries, making their own alcohol to sell and then eventually became proper breweries with a bar for testing samplers. Most food businesses did something similar, starting from growing crops themselves or getting them from the Bazaar. 

The only exception was the old fishery, but that was because raw fish by the truckload heading into the bazaar would go bad fairly quick, so it was a cannery and some of the fish went to brewers and so forth. They had already cleared out what little food stocks remained in there however in setting up at the Lurker village to house them; since those would be least likely to be targeted by looters and random citizens. 

Akrim scratched out the glass of a window and the headed into their first building of the day. 

It was slow, tedious work and most of the buildings were poorly insulated so as the day went on it became sweltering. They did manage to find some tools, portable welding kits and the like, but nothing Ashelin would consider worthwhile for their time.

The streets had a large collection of infected milling about and the way to the power station was dangerous at best, even after breaking into a few buildings. Maybe it was because people knew about the warp gate in there, but more likely it was just due to the eco. People liked eco, food, and water. So that's where most of them congregated. 

Since the equipment was pretty heavy and the sewer entrance so close they made a few trips back and forth to drop off various odds and ends and letting people trek it back to base for them, just the sewers tended to be the safest way to travel as most of the infected down here were stuck; mainly by being lured down some of the side passages to the lurker village and trapped. 

People weren't too fond of the idea of hiding in the sewers when the infection began so there wasn't more than forty of them along the corridors. In the worst case they could flood the pipes and all of them would be swept away, but it was a last resort. For now it was safe, and that meant people were willing to stretch their legs and grab supplies from there.

Around nine is when they found the large truck, dead body in the front but it still had the keys, and when they opened the back Ashelin noted it had been a refrigerated one, and inside was crates of produce, mainly vegetables: Courgettes and the like.

“We should get this back to base,” Ashelin said, heading back to grab the keys out of the door.

Akrim was sitting inside the truck, looking around.

“I'm not carrying this,” he said quietly, to himself.

The van didn't start, not that she would have wanted to drive with the body having soaked into the seats.

“Brutter will pick us up in the air train. Get ready to secure this location.”

This of course meant they'd need a way to refuel later but for this much food it was worth it.

The other option was one of those air balloons but that required muscle power and Lurkers willing to come back to Haven. They were also less stable, slower, a bit louder, and more conspicuous, at least to her.

When it arrived overhead Akrim and Ashelin got into place under it, waiting for them to signal. The communicator crackled faintly and then Brutter dropped what they needed, which they caught with a whump noise.

They had to move fast, unwrapping it and sticking it up to block the alleyways from sight. If the infected couldn't see them they were less of a problem.

While the alleys were mostly clear for now there's no guarantee that a machine landing wouldn't attract attention.

With the area obscured the air train landed and Brutter popped out of the front and hurried over, someone else came out of the back.

There wasn't time to talk as they pulled out the first few crates and put them in, Brutter thankfully bringing a hand cart.

It was rough work and eventually Ashelin had to let the other two handle it, their combined strength greater than hers. Not that she expected less from a metalhead and a Lurker.

She hopped in the front seat and Brutter joined her after a minute, the sounds of darkly curious infected meeting their ears ever louder, but none had tried breaking through yet.

She watched Akrim skitter back and forth with the cart, wheels squeaking at odd intervals from the weight of the produce.

“Ashelin,” Brutter stated, and she looked down to see she had started rubbing his arm.

“Sorry, Brutter.”

As they got louder he turned the ignition key, Akrim seemingly taking that as a hint and forgoing running back and forth.

As Brutter pulled on the steering Ashelin waited for the telltale pressure and weighted feeling from ascending, but it didn't come though the mechanism got louder. A light blinked overhead,  _ overweight. _

“We're-” Brutter started before Ashelin cut in.

“-I know!” She pressed a few buttons to get to the diagnostics loadout. “How much are we out by?”

“Two hundred,” Brutter said uncertainty, peering at his loadouts, opening his mouth to say more but Ashelin was already out of the vehicle, running to the back.

“The ship is weighed down too much, we're going!” she said, slamming her hand down on the side as she ran past, the door slightly a jar already.

As Akrim bounded away from the vehicle it jerked upwards, starting to hover, but they didn't have time to focus on that as the infected got louder behind the paper thin barricades. Akrim boosted Ashelin to a roof before jumping up and they ran as fast as they could away from the noise. 

The first screeches rang out as the air train ascended, the blockades ripped aside by the force of people rushing and screaming, climbing over themselves to get a chance at the flying object.

The door was still ajar, crate blocking it from closing, the door opened and the crate skidded out, air train rising quickly as it fell before the rope caught it; the crate burst apart. Despite the food the infected had climbed over themselves high enough to grab onto the rope and were now scaling it quickly as the person in the back tried to cut it.

“You could learn from them,” she said, jerking her thumb towards the infected.

“Shut up, Ashelin,” Akrim snarled.

The person finally cut the rope and the air train speed up, leaving the enraged infected behind.

“This distraction may have lead them away from the powerstation. We should use this opportunity,” Akrim said, surveying the immediate vicinity.

“Yeah… the power station was the other way,” she said, pointing across the field of angry infected.

“Why do I even let you lead, goddamn,” he said, making her laugh at how unnatural it sounded.

“Because you don't know your way around.”

“Well neither do you,” he shot back.

“Where’s the gardens?” she asked and Akrim fell silent, tail flicking slightly. “But if you want to lead, sure. Go for it.”

Akrim looked around for a moment, quietly contemplating before he stood up. 

“This way,” he said, pointing and then jumping to the next roof. It didn't take long for her to start to fall behind, Akrim a few roofs ahead of her at all times, stopping to slow down every now and then.

Akrim lead them to midtown, which due to its open design was terrible for traversing in this situation. There were no quiet alleyways or shadows, just crowds of them. Akrim seemed undeterred and was walking along at a steady pace around the edges and Ashelin had to rush to keep up with him. If the infected were alerted Akrim was her only real chance to make it out.

It was rather dicey but the real pustules of them were down by the fountains so walking around was unexpectedly safe. Akrim took to wandering in people's gardens when he could, while she tried to look for something interesting, checking her map, only to find Akrim had wandered a block away while she wasn't paying attention. He stopped suddenly by a store, tail tip flicking and this time Ashelin nearly left him behind and had to double back.

It was a bookstore, and Akrim put his face to the glass, illuminating the darkened inside a bit where lots of books were on display, it seemed someone had already tried to break in, door with a broken panel above the knob and blood.

An amateur’s job to be sure, they didn't even get it unlocked; and Ashelin wrapped up her arm before doing so, getting the deadbolt.

The shop was overstuffed and there were many old books which were probably out of date, yellowed paperbacks and the like. There didn't seem like much, not even having the new bestseller everyone had been talking about before this all went down.

Akrim however was bounding about the shelves, racing this way and that before stopping, looking about, and racing the other way. Seemingly beyond ecstatic. He stopped in front of her to point at all the books before he made another round of the shop.

There wasn't a backroom either, but there was a second floor with chairs and the like, a little café with a terrace. She left Akrim on the first floor as she took a look around, but all she found was coffee and tea, the tiny kitchen empty of any real food.

Back downstairs Akrim had finally settled down a bit, merely walking around the shelves tirelessly.

“You like books,” she said.

“Yeah,” he replied, “there's so many here,” he said with wonder in his voice.

“It's a book shop,” she said, blandly, “they're meant to.”

Akrim paid her no mind, pulling out books and flipping through them in a random order. He pulled out more than he could physically carry, and set up a fort of books as he opened his bag.

“We aren't taking all these home,” she said before he could try putting half the shop into his bag. “Prioritize, I'm not going to carry any of these.”

She gestured him to the nonfiction part of the store. There was a section on gardening, cooking, crafts, and she had to stop him just from dumping the shelves into his bag. 

The cookbooks were the easiest to sort, glossy covers showing off one type of dessert were out first, as were most that focused on them. Desserts were nice but they tended to get people making overly complicated thing with too many steps and ingredients. The same thing could be made with less and most people wouldn't even notice. She also cut out anything which was a specialty cookbook, eating for ones or twos, microwave or crockpots, that sort of thing. 

They ended up with a thicker older book called “The Badlands cookbook”, most of which was talking about knowing how to cook types of food rather than any distinct recipes. It also listed substitutes for common ingredients, which was a plus.

Akrim half sorted books while she picked out the few that would be actually useful. Now and then Akrim would bring over something actually worthwhile, like a plumbing textbook, but most of it was trash. He even brought over fiction books at times, and she had to thoroughly convince him that the book he had brought over was not about being able to identify people by scent but was a fictional romance, and not to read it. She knew he did anyway by the sudden snap of covers coming together and being put back on the shelf.

Even after all that sorting Akrim ended up filling his bag with a whole manner of junk. Workbooks, notepads, colouring books, pencils, a giant puzzle, some board games, even more books.

“No,” she said, after Akrim looked pointedly at her bag after his own struggled to be zipped up. “You're not stuffing my bag full of books too, we have enough.”

He stared at her for a moment, before heading somewhere else in the shop and bringing her back a dusty box, a vintage bottle of wine inside; a pretty expensive bottle of wine that she knew probably cost the owner a lot.

“That might convince someone like Veger, but I'm not him. Besides,” she added with a hand on her hip, “I’d still need somewhere to carry it.”

Akrim scurried off again and Ashelin took a proper look at the bottle, she wasn't an expert but something this old either meant it was very good or very bad, not accounting for taste. She tried to peer through the glass but it was fairly thick. It seemed like the type of thing chancellors would offer to her father; and later herself when she proved she wasn't a pushover.

Akrim brushed past and Ashelin noticed he'd placed a book beside her;  _ Amateur wine identification. _

“I don't need this,” she told him, as he had found the cloth tote bags and was shoving books into them. “And you don't need all those books either, stop it.”

Akrim stared at her before huffing and abandoning his books to lurk around the shelves again. He returned to give another book to her,  _ Wine: for dummies _ .

“You’ve got a real attitude, you know that?” she said, pushing the book aside. Akrim pointedly ignored her, pulling out more books. Ashelin rolled her eyes and walked around the shelves, grabbing a book and putting it in front of his face.

“This is for you.”

_ How to make friends when you're an asshole. _

The pages were blank.

Akrim grabbed a set of books and jumbled them around before showing them to her.

“This set of books is for you,” he said, lifting them all up. On the spines there were letters and he had rearranged them to say, “Shut up, Ashelin”.

Not to be out done she grabbed some books and did something similar with the covers; “eat a dick, Akrim” the combined covers said.

Akrim moved to rearrange the books to say something else but Ashelin intercepted him and played goalie for her creation until Akrim managed to knock it over and off the counter. She tossed pens at him in retaliation and he ducked behind the history shelf. 

“Hey Ashelin,” he called after a moment, “I found your biography.” And he lifted a book into the air.

“What?” she walked over, she didn't remember authorizing one, but soon saw he was joking;  _ Wicked and wild women _ , the title read,  _ Haven’s most notorious female serial killers. _

_ “ _ Cute,” she deadpanned, with a annoyed edge to her voice. Akrim beamed up at her and the tip of his tail flicked happily back and forth. “Here’s yours,” she said, picking up a book titled,  _ the spooky thing that sleeps under my bed. _

“I've never been under a bed in my entire life,” he said, digging through a pile of books. “This is mine,” he said as he handed her the one he picked out.

_ Welcome to attitude city.  _ And on the little drawing had the words “Population: shut up!” and Ashelin laughed, taking a moment to see it was by someone named N.S. Party. 

“Nice, let me find one for me.” she went around the store a few times, but nothing really jumped out at her as a perfect title. She even looked behind the counter, but all that was there was stacks of newspapers and few magazines. She flipped through the covers idly until she spotted one and had to flick back to find it again.

“Oh hey, this one is actually me,” she said, opening the magazine and showing him the photo inside.

Akrim tilted his head, taking the magazine and laying it flat, leaning over it and turning his head to the other side, looking up at Ashelin, about to say something, then quickly looking back, swapping between her and the magazine.

“It is you!” he gasped, examining the photo, “you look different.”

“It's a glamour shot, they aren't supposed to be accurate. It's just meant to look pretty,” she said, sitting down on the high stool behind the counter. 

“How so?” he asked, “You already look pretty.”

Ashelin made a face like she'd just eaten something sour before she pulled the magazine back. She considered shoving him, but stopped short.

“What makes you think that?” she asked, suddenly curious about what a metalhead conceived pretty to be. There was no reason for him to think she was; he'd gain nothing from saying it to her, at least. 

“You’ve got a lot of colours,” he said, pointing at the magazine. 

“Huh…” she stared at the image for a second before grabbing an unopened pack of markers and scribbling a garishly colourful clown in a corner. “What would you think of a human like this?” 

“Handsome,” he said, and she snorted, covering her mouth. She ended up cracking up laughing anyways as Akrim busied himself with the magazine, flipping to the cover. 

“This one looks more like you, you have your face lines in this one,” he said, showing her the picture of herself in some dramatic lighting, decked out for full military combat.

“My tattoos. They covered them up with make up in the other one,” she said checking the time after yawning, it was past ten now and the sun had warmed up the day enough to be comfortable.

Akrim flipped through the pages as Ashelin idly stared on. It was one of those old magazines from when she first joined the guard, one that was supposed to be for teenaged or younger girls but they shouldn't actually read due to all the bullshit in it. As Akrim flicked through the pages there were slews of advertisements and pictures encouraging body modification in one way or another.

Akrim just seemed to be looking at the pictures without paying attention to the words and had no problems calling all of them some variant of pretty, or cute, including an old, grizzled looking veteran. She supposed this is how she responded to crocodog photos.

Ashelin got up and Akrim got the hint they were leaving; he stuffed books into the bags and he struggled to manage them all, tote bag villages around his feet as he tried to figure out how to carry them. He looked up at Ashelin but promptly looked back down when she raised an eyebrow at him. There would be no help from her.

He grabbed the handles of the bags, trying to make them equal on each side before scooping up the rest and standing, arms full.

He swayed for a second before he was stable, standing in the middle of the room and looking around, spotting the one he'd missed. He stared at it for a long moment before he turned to Ashelin.

“Help,” he said but Ashelin just turned around to check the doorway, finding too many roaming outside to risk exiting that way she turned around.

He repeated his plea and Ashelin shook her head.

He stared at the bag again before stretching his neck forward and picking it up with his mouth, adjusting to the weight before giving a happy flick of his tail and shuffling to and up the stairs.

“The fuck, dude,” she muttered staring at the way up the stairs for a moment before she packed up the bottle of wine and followed.

On the terrace Akrim squared up to try and jump to the roof, coiling his tail on the ground. And Ashelin waited for the inevitable smash into the wall, checking the street to see if she should stop him beforehand.

The streets were empty. 

She tapped him and jerked her head so he'd follow. Peering over the ledge she looked around, not seeing anyone.

Akrim jumped to the ground and Ashelin breathed in a hiss, looking around before she clambered over the railing and dropped to the ground.

This was eerie, they were just here.

Akrim started walking away with his spoils before Ashelin dragged him to a halt.

“This is suspicious,” she said holding onto his backpack’s hand hold.

“Then we should leave,” he said, squirming in her grasp.

“No, I want to know where they are,” but even before she finished her sentence Akrim was pointing down the road with his tail, and Ashelin let him go and started to walk down the street, pulling out her gun. Akrim whined and Ashelin looked back to see him struggling with his collection of books.

“Drop ‘em,” she told him, “there's no one here so you can pick them up later.” Akrim reluctantly stared at his books for a moment.

A scream broke out through the air and Ashelin ran towards the noise, Akrim dumping his bags to chase after her.

Down the stairs near the waterways a woman was screaming as a collection of hands was dragging her down from her perch on a roof, sinking into a mass of bodies with bloody, open maws sinking into her.

Ashelin raised the gun.

“You can't help her!” Akrim hissed in her ear, pushing the gun down, “It's too late.”

She shoved him, glancing wildly around and spotting someone else, surrounded but only by two.

She took aim at him. It was time to use the mod how it was supposed to be used.

She fired the net, rope swinging out behind it.  But before it could get to the man so he could be pulled away from the danger somebody got in front of it and it tangled around the infected instead. The infected was yanked off their feet. The others turned at its snarling and the man burst through them, running across the bridge.

The woman was still screaming her blood curdling screech but now the other infected were howling. Ashelin looked down to cut the rope. She looked up and several of them had flung themselves on the man.

“Help!” he screamed, desperate eyes upon her, “Help!”

“He's bitten,” Akrim said so fast it blended together but it didn't matter.

He was close enough, the infected were fast, his eyes were bloodshot and wet, he shrugged one off.

“Help,” he pleaded, a wailing sob. She took a step back, shaking her head to one side, her tongue pressed behind her teeth.

An infected hand caught his mouth and tore out his cheek, blood splashed the ground, he reached out to her, a horde was upon him but he could still stare, cries for help never ending. 

Akrim chucked her over his shoulder and ran.

She could still see the man, the betrayal in his eyes as his body was torn apart. Open bloody mouth and muscles torn from his arms in strips. 

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe!

She took in a sharp breath and time seemed to flow on, infected racing towards them. Ashelin pulled out her pistol and fired, catching one in the leg who stumbled back, causing a pile up. 

She squirmed forward on to Akrim’s back and he settled onto all fours, picking up speed.

She twisted her body to support whichever hand she was firing with. Squeezing with her knees to stay upright. 

She ran out of ammo on both, she holstered her weapons and turned when Akrim reared up suddenly and she had to grab onto his back to stay on, twisted in an uncomfortable way.

He was picking up the books.

“Are you fucking crazy!” she screeched, slapping him with her free hand.  He stood up and Ashelin scrabbled for a second before he ducked down again and jumped, snapping the fence as he burst onto the terrace. 

Ashelin readjusted herself to have a better grip as Akrim cracked an umbrella getting onto a table in order to jump, landing hard on the lip of the roof and kicking with his feet. Ashelin jumped over him onto it and pulled, stopping him from sliding down and helping drag him onto the roof. He started adjusting the bags so he could carry them and Ashelin just grabbed a few from him and started running. 

It seemed that wasting her ammo had really helped, infected slowed down by the nets and shots. The open spacing and nonlinear pathways encouraged the packs to follow the roads instead of climbing over buildings, which served her well. They managed to hide in an alley behind a building rather easily, the infected not even checking the side passages. 

For a minute nothing happened, then she heard a funny scraping sound and looked up, body looking down at her, she reached for her gun but whoever was up there didn't scream, but made a funny, mumbling rattling string of sounds.

“What?”

And then it pounced on her, eyes seeming too large for their sockets as it screeched with no voice, a harsh grating sound which gurgled up from its throat. 

It was over. 

But then the side of Akrim’s tote bag hit its face, slamming it into the wall with a crunch.

It didn't move.

Blood leaked from the side of the bag and Ashelin got to her feet as Akrim peeled the bag away.

It's skull had been crushed, and the force had popped out its eye while the rest of it’s head resembled pulp. Her stomach heaved in response and she had to cover her mouth, turning away as her stomach violently convulsed at the sight. 

Akrim gazed down at his handiwork for a moment before pulling out their ID and checking their pockets for anything interesting. 

Their hair was tangled with the pulp and Ashelin had to overcome a new wave of nausea as Akrim passed her the ID. Fifteen, student, part time job card, named Wrexer, liked tigerillas and the colour green; her wallet told her story and they had murdered her. 

Ashelin looked down at the pulp that used to be a face, trying to pass over it as quickly as possible looking for a memento of some kind that might be on her person, a ring or a bracelet, or…

There was a chain around her neck.  And Ashelin got the disinfectant out of her bag before she picked it up, gagging as bone fragments and connected tissue started to lift up too. She undid the chain and pulled the necklace away. Making a noise as the smushed face came up with it.

“I got it.” Akrim said, grabbing the dead girl’s arm and using it to push at the skull, holding it up while Ashelin get the necklace, then dropping it down with a squelch. 

Ashelin’s hands felt cold and clammy, and the smell of ethanol combined with the leftover adrenaline coursing through her system was making her dizzy, she turned her back on the body and leant against the alley wall further down to pour disinfectant on the necklace, scrubbing it off quickly before shoving it into her bag.

She turned to see Akrim staring out of the alleyway. As she approached he looked at her before he stepped out. 

“All clear,” he called, walking to the street with his bags of books, stained one held apart from the rest. 

He let Ashelin fill her bag with books before they carefully walked through the alleyways, finding no one.

“I think the one back there was their leader,” Akrim said, breaking the silence. “They were approaching the alley, but after we killed it they went away. 

“Her,” Ashelin corrected, taking the lead and walking ahead of Akrim. “How would that even work?”

“Same way they can tell we aren't them, except she didn't scream to tell them what it was she found, so they assumed there wasn't anything and left,” Akrim said, and Ashelin made a noncommittal noise of acknowledgment as she mulled it over.

“I don't think she could scream,” she said finally as they trudged back to the industrial sector, “mute.”

Ashelin turned towards the sewer entrance as Akrim hesitated at the branching path behind her. She knew he wanted to take advantage and see Vin, now that there had been another distraction, but he relented and followed her without a word.

The events twisted in her mind as she walked. Blood, bone and eyes. Always eyes. She took a deep breath to calm herself but the smell got to her and she doubled over, heaving streams of bile into the river of sewage, until she was just dryly vomiting, stomach empty. 

She caught her breath, spots dancing as she kept her eyes closed, area vaguely spinning.

“Are you alright?” Akrim asked, keeping a safe distance of a few meters.

“Oh sweetheart, I'm just peachy,” she spat, both the words and the traces of bile in her mouth. “Get over here,” she said, motioning with her hand. He cautiously stepped beside her and she leaned on his back, a much cleaner resting point that the wall, even if the bags did have sharp edges. 

He leaned a bit more and tapped at her with his tail until she got the hint, carrying her for a bit. Her sickness subsiding quickly as she rested.

She sighed, turning her face to the side.

“I could have saved them…” she murmured bitterly to herself, hand running back and forth as the other clenched into a fist.

“Nope,” Akrim said, and Ashelin stopped leaning on him.

“I could've,” She said firmly, staring at the back of his head.

“You couldn't!” he snarled and Ashelin pushed off of him, moving past him and along the passage in silence, Akrim slowly falling in line behind her.

They walked back through the sewers, Akrim dragging behind until they made it back, dropping to the floor as the door closed behind them. Bags spilling out along the ground.

He breathed heavily as Ashelin put down her own bag with a thump.

“Wow, I think you might be pushing him a bit hard,” Tess commented from her perch outside the quarantine as Ashelin dropped into a chair.

“He chose to bring those back himself. I had nothing to do with it,” Ashelin said as she took off her boots. She checked the bottom of them, blood soaked into the grooves, and sighed, scrubbing at them as best she could over a bucket, trying not to breathe in the fumes too much.

Tess padded over to look in the bags, reaching out when Akrim growled at her, causing everyone standing up to take a step back.

“It's fine, just give her the books, Tess isn't going to get sick,” Ashelin said, wiping over her equipment.

Akrim kept growling, grabbing his books closer to him. “They're mine!” he said, and Ashelin choked.

“You can't read all of them at once anyways!” she said in disbelief. What a childish monster. “This is the same guy who said,  _ let's do something nice for _ -” Akrim made a series of loud disruptive noises, tail thumping against the the ground- “But won't even let her look at a book.” Ashelin shook her head slightly, but before Tess could say something Akrim piped up first.

“Ashelin needs medicine, she threw up today.” And after that revelation Akrim happy started sorting his books as everyone's attentions swapped over to her.

“Are you okay?” Tess said, studying her face, “You do look clammy, and your eyes seem kinda grey; do you wanna request something special for lunch? They're running a bit late since we had to go through all the food, and whatever they make might not be the best if you're sick.”

“It's alright, Tess. Sewer got to me, that's all,” she said, finishing cleaning the last of her items before glancing at the small mirror they had on a table, tensing up and feeling her fingers go cold at how much blood was on her face.

Her mouth went dry and she swallowed automatically. Most of it seemed to be near her cheeks and forehead, with a good dose all over one ear. No flecks were around her mouth, meaning she couldn't have accidentally swallowed any and been infected.

She breathed easy and started cleaning up, doing the delicate work near her ear first, wiping outwards.

“Want me to go put in a lunch order?” Tess asked, looking up at her.

“Yeah, despite all this I'm still hungry,” Ashelin said with a sigh, finally just scrubbing her face down and getting behind a screen to swap clothes. 

Tess saluted and walked out, Ashelin making a face at her over the screen.

She monitored Akrim. He handed over the books which had blood soaked into them to the quarantine managers, and a huge cutter was brought out. They checked where the words ended on the pages and tried to chop as little as possible. 

On the other side of the quarantine he neatly stacked the books into seemingly random piles. Picking up one before walking over with it to a door and sitting politely, knocking on it with his knuckles. 

Ashelin walked over to his other sets of books, somehow he'd managed to bring even more junk than she'd thought. And after looking around a bit more she saw books she explicitly told him to put back, or doubles of things. 

Ashelin picked up the giant cookbook and handed it to the first person delivering things she saw. 

“Deliver these to the kitchen. Tell them they can use the wine how they want.” she let out a long stream of air, “They deserve it for sorting all those crates,” she added more conversationally, and the person agreed, telling her how they had to get even the off duty chefs and some of the gardeners to help. 

She waved them off before turning to Akrim, who seemed to have finally gotten a response, and was talking to someone.

A man was leaning over him, hands on the doorframe and an annoyed expression on their face. She could distinctly make out the words, “What do you want,” even from here because they were saying the words slowly and deliberately. 

She walked forward in time to hear the end of Akrim’s response. 

“It's for the small one,” he said, holding the books up.

“I have a name,” said a voice behind the man, and not seeing a way forward the kid just pushed against the person in front of her until they staggered, letting her out.

“Okay,” Akrim said, handing her the books. The girl awkwardly wrapped her arms around them, avoiding touching him at all. “It's homework,” he said, though Ashelin could see the puzzle and colouring pencils on the top.

“Thank you…” the girl said after a moment shuffling her feet for a second.

“You don't have to thank something like-” the man started to say but Akrim cut in first.

“You're welcome,” he said pleasantly, closing his eyes and tail giving a flick.

The girl headed back inside and the man blocked the doorway again, grabbing onto the door handle, his voice harsh and low. 

“If anything happens because of those books you’ll regret it, lizard.” Then he slammed the door. 

Akrim stared at it before calling out, “I'm a metalhead,” at the closed door and walking away.

He noticed Ashelin looking at him but didn't say anything, walking back to his book collection noticing the missing cookbook and pointing at the location it used to be, turning to Ashelin. 

“I had it taken to the chefs,” she said, and Akrim put his hand down, grabbing the rest with a huff and walking off with them, putting them into his room and shutting the door.

Ashelin rolled her eyes and got to work, heading to the office and going through paperwork, charting movements on the map, updating the list of the deceased, checking priority on the equipment requests, and the like.

Tess came in after a while, taking a seat on the edge of Ashelin’s desk. 

“What is it?” Ashelin asked, finally acknowledging Tess properly and putting down her pen.

“I came to talk to you,” she said and Ashelin had to try not to let her discomfort show on her face, hands settling into fists on the desk. “What happened today?”

“Same thing as ever, go out to grab some stuff,  see some infected,” Ashelin replied, leaning back in her chair.

“And bringing someone back safely?” Tess prompted.

“Ah,” Ashelin said, grabbing from a new stack of papers, “Yeah, we found Jinx in the sewers.”

“Really?!” Tess said, bouncing up and down a bit. “Oh, I'm glad he's okay,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief, and staring at a point on the wall, dreamily. “Asshole owes me six bucks,” she added, her voice getting deeper and Ashelin snorted, putting a hand up to her mouth.

“Even in a situation like this he still owes someone money,” Ashelin joked and Tess nodded.

“I told him that he should take all the security warnings seriously, and he bet me it'd all blow over in a week,” Tess told her, with a grin.

“I wish,” and both of them sighed.

“Also got a signal from the wastelands,” Ashelin said after a moment. 

“Sig?” Tess asked and Ashelin gave her a nod. “I'm glad he's okay.”

The conversation trickled out and Ashelin started to work again, going through paperwork and sorting it. 

“So, sewers got to you, huh? If you're sick you'd follow the rules. Can't afford everyone getting a bug,” Tess said, testing the waters.

“I'm not sick,” Ashelin rubbed at her neck and Tess sat up attentively, ears perking up. A sure sign she'd caught on that there was something to tell. “Adrenaline rush comedown combined with the sewers… not a great feeling,” Ashelin said, and Tess patted her arm soothingly. “I'm fine,” Ashelin said, rolling the shoulder on the side Tess was touching.

Tess sat neatly as Ashelin stared at the paper in front of her, pen to paper but not writing anything, words stuck in her head. She clicked the pen and let it roll onto the desk as she rubbed her face.

“We ran into people, the girl was done for, but the guy still had a chance. I tried to get him with the net gun but an infected got in the way, by the time I had cut the rope…” Ashelin explained, rubbing her face and giving a sigh at the end. “I could have saved them,” Ashelin said, seriously, “If I hadn't been messing around earlier, or just been a bit faster, more accurate, reloaded quicker. Just something.”

Tess patted her gently as Ashelin broke down what had happened and the events leading up to it. She listened politely and didn't interrupt with any questions, saving her response to the end.

“Ashelin,” she said, hand on her arm and looking up at her, “I don't think you could have saved those people, no matter what you did.”

Ashelin stayed quiet.

“I don't think you would have even known if you’d been any faster,” Tess continued, “you'd just be on your way back and too far away. It sounds like you had under half a minute to notice anything strange, and you did. You did all you could do,” Tess reassured her.

Ashelin kept her eyes on her hands.

“You might be right,” she said softly, interlacing her fingers.

“Have I ever been wrong,” Tess said in fake shock, hand over her heart, and Ashelin gave a short breath of a laugh, shaking her head.

“Depends who you ask,” She teased, and Tess gave a fake gasp.

“I was framed!” She expressed loudly, both hands over her heart, and Ashelin laughed, giving her the gentlest push she could. After a moment Ashelin completed a line of her paperwork, and glanced at Tess, who was still looking up at her.

“So, you're finally admitting it huh,” Tess said, turning her gaze away for a moment, “You're always saying how they're just sick, about an eventual cure.”

“There will be,” Ashelin cut into Tess’s monologue, “but it's better not to get sick to begin with.”

“Alright,” Tess replied, “But if it comes down to it, healthy people should take priority, you know that, right?”

“I do,” Ashelin said, completing the paper and handing it to Tess. “That's for if you want to see Jinx, he's in observation right now with a cough, but it should be cleared up in a few days.”

“Thanks, Ashelin,” she said, taking the paper.

“I'm not sure he'll be up, he saw Akrim and knocked himself out trying to get away.”

Tess winced, putting a hand to her face. “Jinx,” she groaned, shaking her head. “You're serious aren't you. Of course he'd end up doing something like that.”

“Most hilarious thing I've seen all day,” Ashelin admitted, and Tess buried her face in her hands with a long groan.

Tess waved goodbye to go say hi to Jinx and Ashelin got back to work, looking up as Akrim brought over some paperwork detailing all the objects he had collected along with some extra office supplies, which he quickly found a spot to put them away.

After Ashelin checked the list she confirmed the last book she had ordered to the kitchens and signed off on the page. She looked up to find Akrim hanging around, waiting for her to finish.

“Where’s Brutter?” he asked.

Ashelin pulled back a bit, the words, “why do you need to know? _ ” _ coming out accusatorial.

“To see if they need this stuff upstairs,” he said, showing her the separate set of educational books.

“I don't know,” she admitted, then looked up as if expecting a note or the lurker himself to materialize. She got up and Akrim passed the books to her, getting the door. He took then back from her, apparently determined to search by himself but Ashelin followed him, wanting to stretch her legs a bit.

Akrim bounded his way around the compound, but if Brutter was already upstairs there wasn't much point.

Brutter, unlike the rest of them, was allowed into the upper parts of the lurker village closer to the surface, unlike the lower city it wasn't cramped and had adequate ventilation from the wind blowing through the cavern it inhabited. Very few people were allowed up, mainly gardeners, though the occasional other type of worker if necessary. There were people who under no circumstances were allowed up, including anyone who had used lurkers for forced labour or anyone from a KG background, including Ashelin. Metalheads were excluded as well, that was a given.

As it happened Brutter was coming back down, coming from one of the interlocking gates he back stepped when Akrim got too close, hands ready to form into fists, then he stopped and folded his arms and let Akrim approach without comment. After a few terse words Akrim seemed to correct himself of some misunderstanding at which they spoke a little more casually. 

Brutter took the books from Akrim, and by the time Ashelin got over there it seemed she had missed something, Akrim kneading the ground a little as the tip of his tail flicked.

“I would be interested in that, I'll sort through the contents for you too if you want,” Akrim said, and Brutter nodded.

“Would be very helpful, yes. I appreciate it,” he said, tucking the books securely under his arm.

“What did I miss?” she asked, coming up behind Akrim.

“Metalh- Akrim,” he corrected himself quickly, “We were talking about exchanging books in the future.”

“You have books?” she asked in surprise, she supposed that made sense.

“Yeah, might bring some down later. See you, Governess, Akrim.” Brutter waved and the two said their goodbyes to him, Akrim slinking off to his room and bringing books out, starting to walk towards Tess’s workshop as the lunch bell sounded, Chef announcing that lunch was ready to be served. 

Ashelin stretched and started to walk over, taking a glance as others started to finish up their tasks and head over as quickly as possible. 

Lunch was a bit less glamorous than breakfast or dinner, since not everybody was here for it most days. The gardeners worked upstairs and since getting back up and down was a hassle they packed lunch, or perhaps ate with the lurkers. Of course there was usually someone out exploring too, and either you took something or you found a small stash of food, the later the preferred option.

Breakfast there was usually a bit of a choice, cereal with powdered milk, maybe fresh bread if you came at the right time, or pancakes, sometimes rice dishes, depends how fancy the chefs felt, or their limitations. Since everyone got up at different times it was a make as you go sort of thing, pre prepared containers that just needed water and a good shaking before being poured on the grill. 

For lunch it tended to be whatever needed using up.

Ashelin noticed Tess sitting to the side, looking onto the lunch rush and waved at her, prompting her to quickly scurry over.

“Hey, mind if I borrow your shoulder? I normally wait till the end of the rush so I don't get stepped on but…”

“Today it was late to start with,” Ashelin said, dropping herself down at little and Tess jumped up, careful with her mechanical leg. Tess hummed an affirmative and they took their place in line.

Akrim came out from the passageway to the workshop and spotting Tess made for them before encountering the line and stopping; his tail flicked back and forth for a moment as he looked at the line and quietly slipped into place in it, keeping his head low.

Lunch was filled with vegetables, not surprising since they had brought back a lot. Some type of vegetarian burger, or fritter, was the main dish, they were saving the best stuff for dinner, she supposed.

She took both hers and Tess’s trays and sat on the bench, Tess hopping of of her shoulder and thanking her before digging in.

Shortly after, Akrim slinked across from them and handed Tess some books. The plumbing textbook, but also a beginner’s guide for guns; for her assistant of course, he reassured her. And Tess flipped through the pages of various books as she ate, checking the contents. Akrim also checked the gun book, reading through it quietly. 

Ashelin noted that it was strangely empty at their table, normally it'd be packed, and indeed the other tables were. She mention this and the others seemed unconcerned.

“Akrim and I normally eat late, so I didn't notice anything different,” she said, before turning to Akrim, “right?”

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his head low and his tail smacking the table leg every now and then.

She had a pretty good guess as to why, normally she'd be pretty popular but the need to avoid the metalhead was strong it seemed.

A lunch tray hit the table with a clatter and Ashelin jumped a bit, turning to see Tess’s assistant Taryn. She took a seat beside her and took a few quick bites of her food before she squeaked out a hello to her, breathing a bit shallow and wiping away some imaginary stray hair.

Ashelin looked on at her, corner of her mouth pulling up, murky thoughts cleared up by considering just how she'd play around with her.

“Hi,” Ashelin purred, eyes lingering on her face for a moment before she turned back to her food, fork gliding through it easily and luxuriously, slipping it into her mouth more smoothly than silk. 

Peering through her eyelashes Ashelin could tell Tess was trying to hold back giggles, Taryn had her mouth pressed tightly together and her hands firmly in her lap, and Akrim had his head tilted a little as he looked at her before turning back to his book, trying to read it a bit faster.

She returned to eating properly and the rest of the table returned to a vague sense of normality, Tess sneaking glances now and then, sucking in her lips a bit to prevent herself from grinning, a bit giddy; Taryn however seemed a bit petrified, stuck across from Akrim but beside Ashelin; and the metalhead himself was just quietly reading his book.

“I suppose this is close enough to taking me out to eat,” Ashelin said to the girl beside her, and Taryn floundered for a response.

“Well- I mean- yeah, um,” Taryn said, and Tess tried to stifle her giggles as Taryn continued talking, “You're just my idol, I used to dress like you and try to get my hair like yours and I was going to join the KG before it shut down, and I'm just so excited to meet you I just can't believe it!” she chattered, touching the hair beside her ears a lot. “I just really think you're cool and uh…” Taryn seemed to becoming increasingly aware of Tess giggling away and put her face in her hands, Ashelin practically able to feel the heat coming off her neck.

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't,” Taryn mumbled, grabbing her tray as Tess slammed her hand on the table, unable to reign in her giggling to talk to her. 

“Hey," Ashelin said, reaching out to her, but Taryn stood up, stepping away from the bench.

“Watch my tray,” Akrim said, standing up, and Taryn immediately sat down, sweat beading on her forehead as Akrim walked off somewhere.

When he his footsteps faded she relaxed a bit, taking a deep breath.

“Sorry, you're normally pretty quiet and focused on doing something, so this is different, I'm not laughing at you, promise!” Tess chirped, chewing on some carrots.

Taryn was quiet, shuffling her food about with cutlery before she loaded some onto her fork. She slammed her fist down on the end of it and food splattered onto Tess’s shirt.

She froze for a second, looking up to see Taryn grinning and Ashelin looking kind of shocked. Tess broke out into laughter and got up from her seat, arms spread wide and devilish grin as she tried to return the catapulted food to Taryn, despite the girl’s struggles.

They squabbled and a bit of jovial screeching went on to Ashelin’s amusement. At least until the food problem was sorted, and then they chatted quickly for a moment as Tess sat back down and Taryn flipped through the book on guns. 

Without Akrim the tables nearby filled up quite quickly, an elderly man saying hello to Taryn before he sat beside her. Ashelin didn't recognise him, though apparently Taryn did, so they must have shown up together. And he didn't seem put off by Tess in the least, introducing himself as Ozmo and shaking her hand.

Akrim dropped a magazine down in front of Taryn.

“It's Ashelin,” he told her, pointing at the picture. He sat back in his seat and went through more of his food.

“Why’d you bring this back.” Ashelin grumbled, watching Taryn pick it up and flip through pages to the small article about her.

“It had you in it,” He said matter of factly. He took a look at the new table member,much to the quiet alarm of Ozmo, before promptly ignoring him and sliding the gun book away from Taryn.

Brutter stopped by and after a moment's deliberation took a seat beside Akrim. At this people weren't so nervous to fill up the spaces on the table beside them.

The table soon broke off into smaller conversations; Tess, Brutter and Akrim talking about books and guns and other such things while Ashelin answered questions about herself and learned more about Taryn.

“I used to help out at my family's construction business, Ozmo here later became my boss at his extermination company,” she explained, gesturing her thumb at him.

“What's that? I heard my name, I'm Ozmo, nice to meet you governess.” He held out his hand and she gave him a firm handshake.

“Likewise,” she said. Ashelin pulled her hand back, resting it on Taryn’s shoulder instead. “So from construction into exterminating, how'd that happen?”

“Had a bad case of metalbugs on one of our construction sites, and rather than let another wimpy exterminator fail I decided to try and take matters into my own hands. One of Ozmo’s exterminators was already on the job and after we solved it things went from there,” she said and Ozmo nodded.

“What did you do at the construction site, behind the scenes work? Accounting, regulations, permits, building codes, or anything like that?” Ashelin asked, trying to determine her skill set.

“Nothing much, I never really had an interest, though I learned a bit about welding and pipes, which is why I'm working with Tess. Later Ozmo let me build parts so long as I kept the equipment running, even let me test some of them on the bigger jobs,” Taryn said with a devilish grin, which Ashelin quickly matched.

“Nice,” she said and Taryn explained some of her creations, rivaling Tess in bizarrely creative barrel and trigger weaponry. Both highly dangerous of course, despite Taryn’s being used for bugs.

She started off on a story about the damage one of her creations could do, but slowed down, after saying a name, “Ximon.” Judging by the look on her face something painful had happened, but before Ashelin could change the subject Ozmo spoke up.

“He was my son, we lost him before we made it here,” he said, gazing down at his food but not really looking at it.

“I'm sorry for your loss,” Ashelin said, not wanting to meet his eyes.

“He was a nice boy, he and Taryn used to date, you know?” he said conversationally, and Ashelin looked down squeezing her shoulder in comfort before dropping her hand and moving slightly back. 

“Sounds like you were a happy family,” she said, and Ozmo started talking about him, telling stories about his love of surfing, how hard it was to teach him to drive, and his, at points, surprising lack of work ethic regarding the store. Taryn added quips and clarifications here and there.

“I suppose it's good he had a life outside the business, it got blown up you see, luckily at that time Daxter was outside but-”

“You know Daxter?” Ashelin cut in, and Ozmo nodded.

“I scouted him! You know him too? Small world, though I suspected as much when I saw her,” he said, pointing at Tess, who turned around at that, ears perked up.

“Me? Oh yes, Daxter and I are in a relationship now,” she said, “Actually we met before, in the bar. But I was a lot taller and blonder back then,” she said touching her hair, “Do you remember me at all?” she asked and Ozmo held a hand over his mouth, brow furrowed until it clicked into place.

“Oh!” he said, pointing at her, “Yes! The pretty girl, you were taller back then. Well I'll be, Daxter always talked about changing forms, but I was never sure about it.”

They chatted, and soon the stories fell into being about Ximon and Daxter, and the trouble they'd get into by themselves with Taryn’s occasional help. 

“Makes me wonder about if that Kaeden fellow wasn't really a man either,” Ozmo piped up suddenly, “I just took it as a way to make the story more interesting, but I wonder if he was telling the truth,” Ozmo said, quietly stroking his beard.

“Kaeden?” Akrim piped up, lifting his head from the table and startling both of the ex-exterminators. 

“Yeah,” Ashelin answered for them, “sounds like you know him.”

“I knew of the name,” Akrim explained, “Decent, but rather unaccomplished.” 

Ozmo spluttered for a moment before catching his voice, “The man blew up my shop!” he said finally, hand pushing down on the table hard enough to make he fingers white.

“He was doing his job,” Akrim said.

“By endangering my family?!” Ozmo shouted.

“By protecting ours.”

Ozmo and Taryn missed any opportunity to show indignation at this remark as Akrim fixed his posture while saying it, towering over them. 

“Sit back down, Akrim,” Ashelin said, placing a hand on her empty holster.

“I am,” he told her, but returned to slouching anyways. 

Unwilling to let the atmosphere get worse, Tess piped up with the idea of hosting makeshift classes with the books, which immediately caught Ashelin’s attention and thus Brutter’s as well. The discussion quickly turned to organisation of voluntary classes and of deciding the details, like who would teach. The discussion quickly surpassed lunchroom talk and instead went to the office and the making up of schedules and what not. Within the first hour they had informed everyone of this plan and had made vague sign up sheets for scheduling purposes. A list of volunteers soon followed.

Among this chaos Akrim set up a makeshift shelving unit against a wall, books placed in boxes inside tote bags, with a little note that said “Librairy” which he promptly scratched out and put the correct spelling of as soon as someone pointed out it was spelt wrong.

There was a rush as they learned that a storm was going to set in, and they didn't get a break until dinner, loud exuberant joy at having peanut butter cups. From afar a few people asked and then commended whoever brought books, the makeshift library raided and broken up into various reading groups. 

One of these groups had the little girl and the man Akrim had brought books to, and she talked to the man, telling him she had heard about his quarantine concerns and informing him he was welcome to apply for quarantine duty to levy his fears, which he politely declined.

The rain made such a thing obsolete for the next week anyway, and Ashelin focused on paperwork and management duties. Many of the nonfiction books found permanent homes as reference books and rarely returned to the makeshift library. With them came many specialized requests for equipment as people found the uses for objects or tools within their pages, so Ashelin didn't go long without having to deal with more paperwork, even if nothing was coming back from the outside.

As Ashelin found herself waved over for a midnight reading session to Jinx outside the sickbay, she found herself enjoying her time spent cooped up indoors. At first a part of her was stir crazy, but that part was smothered by Tess’s interesting voicing of various pirates and Taryn’s lap as a pillow, listening to Jinx wheeze at every raunchy sailor joke. 


	4. Chapter 4

Some people weren't as immune to going stir crazy, and their name also happened to start with the letter A. 

Akrim practically dragged Ashelin out of bed to the gate when the rain stopped. The chefs weren't even up, which was really saying something.

“The industrial section, let's go the right way this time,” he said, pacing incessantly as Ashelin stared blankly at the door, even going so far as to tug on it, much to the alarm of the guards, who hadn't set up the makeshift quarantine.

Eventually Akrim was dissuaded from going out before dawn, and he settled back down, tail sweeping the floor when he wasn't pacing back and forth. Ashelin only got a few more hours sleep before the shift change, the night guards and radio attendants coming off duty to have breakfast while the new guys set up.

As soon as that was done however there was a loud bang as her door was pushed open and Akrim was shaking her. 

“I wanna go outside. Let's go. Wake up,” and other such statements were spouted at her before she shook him off and sat up. Shooing him off by saying something about coffee or breakfast and off he went. Leaving Ashelin to shake off her grogginess and get ready for the day.

Akrim as it turned out, had no idea how she liked breakfast at all. But she supposed rice was alright, though she didn't know the name of the dish. Her coffee was black and rather than drink it herself she made Akrim drink enough so she could put milk in, which he didn't take too well. The chefs chatted with her, along with the guys off duty as Akrim sulked. Finally he had enough, and in the middle of her conversation climbed up from under the table to loom in her face, making those sitting beside her jump and move their trays away and Ashelin nearly fall backwards off the bench.

She had to move to let him get out, and as there wasn't much point in talking anymore put away her tray and said her goodbyes; tromping over to the gate with Akrim at her heels.

“Hey, Red,” called Jinx, grinning. “Bet you didn't expect to see this mug brighten up your day.” 

He had a half eaten tray of breakfast beside him and was sitting at a table inside the quarantine. His smile dropped and his pupils dilated as he saw Akrim, face going pale before he shook himself and started speaking to Ashelin again.

“So you want door ah? Yeah, yeah! Can do that for you, and uh, that. Is it a he? I heard he was a he, but I mean it's not like I can tell, seen enough of em in the sewers but fuck if I know.” 

Ashelin leaned slightly, just enough to keep Akrim out of sight.

“You're quarantine is over and the first thing they do is stick you back on one. Did you even get a tour?”

“Enough to know where the chow is and what they want me to blow up later,” he said with a grin, “Wanna show me where I'm sleeping tonight?” Jinx raised an eyebrow at her and Ashelin crossed her arms.

“Dressed a little light to be going outside the gate, but if you really want to sleep out there that's fine.” she teased, smirking as Jinx shook his head. “If you're with me you need to be packing the right equipment.”

“Woof,” said Jinx. “Too bad I know flirting with you won't do me any good. Know any nice girls who need a flat chest to wake up on?” he asked, “I'll find the guys alright, don't worry about that.”

Ashelin made a face.  

“We don't need a different sort of disease spreading around, Jinx.”

“Hey!” he snapped, “I just came off quarantine, fit as a fiddle! What kind of guy do you think I am anyway, I'm safe. I have a better record than the old shield wall, a one hundred percent protection rate.” 

“We don't stock condoms,” Ashelin said.

“Shit.” Jinx shook his head and stuffed some unfinished breakfast into his mouth. Some of the powdered eggs it looked like.

“Still haven't finished breakfast,” She commented and Jinx swallowed before rounding on her.

“I'm working on it!”

They chatted about the people around camp, what people's hobbies were and if they could be convinced to play poker, what people generally considered fair stakes, and so on. A girl named Rejles might have been a perfect friend for him if she was still around. She left, planned on finding somewhere away from all this. Maybe she did.

While Ashelin was talking Akrim glared at her, and occasionally huffed in annoyance. As she didn't relent he switched his focus to Jinx, who mumbled his sentence into oblivion and put his fork down.

“I'll get the door.” 

“Jinx just finish your breakfast. You won't be able to eat it if you open quarantine,” Ashelin said, but Jinx shook his head.

“Lost my appetite,” he said, then perhaps fearing that's why Akrim was staring at him, as he still hadn't stopped, dropped his tray in front of him. “H-here,” he slid it closer with his foot, and Akrim followed the movement, staring down at the tray.

“Jinx, no, ĺook,” she said putting a hand on his shoulder, “He's fine take your food back,” but as she looked down the tray was now empty. “Akrim you sack of-” she raised her arm and he bolted, taking the empty tray with him.

He turned back to check she wasn't following before slowing down and taking it out of his mouth. Going to drop it off. 

He was back quickly enough, and Ashelin gave him a moment to let his guard down before smacking him. 

All geared up, Akrim squeezed himself out of the opening door and sped through lowering the bridge and beyond. The waterways were higher than normal, but not dangerously so, and aside from Akrim being practically out of sight they made it to the surface with no problems, enough time had passed that the sky wasn't dark, and Akrim bounded inside a building, as to not be on the street with the sluggish infected, apparently tired after the night. 

The trip was far from perfect. Rain had made the roofs slippery and some of the older streets filled with water that made it harder to move quietly. Akrim was also very adamant about not staying still, and not staying on all fours. No matter how much Ashelin jabbed him with her elbow, as his figure caught attention.

Luckily it seemed that the days and nights of rain had tired them out. Most seemed unbothered, even outright passed out. Even so it was a mixture of luck they were able to search various warehouses without much trouble.

When Akrim no longer felt the need to move at top speeds or otherwise endanger them it was almost halfway through the day, and others had ventured just a little passed the sewers to help identify tools and carry them back. The makeshift barriers went untouched, and some curious welders made a vague barrier, bars flash soldered together and to the metal walls of a building.

This emboldened others and soon there seemed to be an effort to make more of them to try and reclaim the city. It was a fairly pointless gesture. Any real fence tended to get climbed or broken down if any infected wanted to get passed them. It at least discouraged stragglers if they happened to push against the cloth from trying to break past it.

Finally Akrim padded over to Ashelin and asked about going to the powerstation. Given the help they were pretty ahead of schedule, and while she wanted to chew him out about his behaviour it could at least wait till they weren't in front of everyone else.

They headed off, Ashelin telling the others to make sure everyone knew to head back. They took to the rooftops, watching the crowd finish pulling in their hauls and retreat back down through the sewers.

“Mind telling me what your problem is?” Ashelin said, starting her trek across rooftops, Akrim following close behind her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean charging ahead, bursting in on my conversations and endangering us both. The fuck is your problem?” Ashelin growled, speeding up as her boots gripped well despite the slick roof, knowing that Akrim didn't have that assurance.

“Are you really…” he scoffed, apparently not needing to finish his question. “I wanted to get out. I didn't get to read any of the books I brought back, or listen to someone read them. I was bored. And your people get antsy the more I'm around,” he added onto the end, glowering. “It's not fun.” said Akrim, bitterly, glancing the look off somewhere vaguely towards the ground, though there was nothing to note.

“Not enough of a reason,” Ashelin stated, glaring at him. “You could have sucked it up for a few minutes, it's just people not going near you, you're so dramatic.”

“Guess I'll avoid you for a few minutes then.” Akrim stated, making to turn around before Ashelin grabbed his bag.

“Stop being stupid.”

“Why don't you tell your people that, Human leader Ashelin.” and he shrugged his shoulder until Ashelin let go.

“My people aren't stupid,” Ashelin snapped at him, getting slightly louder. And seeing her about to start arguing with him he ducked his head, glaring ahead.

“You just don't get it.”

Ashelin gave an angry huff, climbing onto the next roof on her own.

The angry silence between them continued for a few minutes until a sharp scream from the direction they had come from split the air with the screeching of the infected on its heels. Ashelin turned to run back but slipped, catching Akrim and making them both hit the roof as the screams rose up along the block.

“This is our chance,” Akrim hissed, kneading her shoulder as he glanced along the rooftops.

“What? No, we have to make sure they're alright,” She said, using him to push herself off the ground.

“Ashelin it's too late. If something’s gone wrong there's nothing we can do. If you think so highly of them then trust they've got it under control and let's use this chance.” Akrim started running, and Ashelin glanced behind before she followed. 

Akrim was slower due to the lack of friction so she caught up quickly. The power station was clear of the infected, but the door was unresponsive. 

“We need a prybar, or something like it. A metal bar with teeth on the end so we can break in. Wait here.” Ashelin checked her bag for a second before reaching out to check Akrim’s, only to find he wasn't there and was messing with the door instead. Claws digging into the groove and trying to pull the door away from the frame.

His feet kept slipping and he slid to the ground, using all his appendages to try and open the door. Ashelin opened his bag and found what she was looking for, stepping into Akrim’s tangle of limbs and using the pry bar. She didn't have much success, though at least the door started to creak. Akrim waved up at Ashelin, but when she didn't look just picked her up so he could get off the ground.

The door refused to move, and the metal pry bar seemed to have a slight bend in it.

“If we could just power the door it'd open up.” Ashelin grumbled, making Akrim hold the part that seemed at risk of bending. He looked over to the electronic lock to the side, and tapped it, much to the annoyance of Ashelin, who wanted to actually open the door.

She pushed him aside and tried again by herself. Looking up when there was a strange crunching noise to see Akrim had pulled the cover of it off. Not that it mattered much. She struggled with the pry bar until it jolted suddenly, scraping across the door. Fuming she tried again.

There was a sharp beep and the door opened, or at least started to, Ashelin pushing it to open and waiting for Akrim to slip inside before she let go of the door, it slipping closed behind them.

“Ow.” Akrim commented, shaking his hands. He stood over her, taking in the height of the room as she walked forward. It was dark, and Ashelin grabbed onto the railing, groping her way forward in the dark.

“Vin!” she called out, but there was no reply.Given the state of state of the room it was a pointless gesture to begin with. Akrim brushed past her in the dark, entirely too quiet for something that towered over six feet tall. His gem and eyes made a good reference for distance though, and she waved broadly, and he padded back over, helping her extract the flashlight from her bag.

He surveyed the room as Ashelin searched for papers or removable computer parts. Watching her open casings and blandly press on buttons.

A screen blinked to life, blinding them with a blue screen until their eyes adjusted. A single word upon it, “Hello?”

Ashelin scrambled for the keyboard and typed back. 

“Hello Vin, this is Ashelin.”

Instantly the screen jumped to life with a long string of sentences.

“Oh! Thank goodness, someone I know. Those monsters out there came after the eco, so I had to seal the doors. I had to shut down pretty much everything to conserve power and keep this place going. If the power goes out I'll die! Well, as close as I can get to it now at anyrate. I'm not keen on trying it I'll let you know.” there was a small gap as space rendered then he continued.

“Anyway, what're you doing here Ashelin? Is it safe now? I'm not getting any eco inputs so I guess not, what do you need? I'm not going to be much help, but I'll do my best.”

“We came here to see you, to check up on you and maybe find some maps or other data to take back.” Ashelin typed as Akrim read the screen.

“He's a talking book,” Akrim said, looking at the monitor with interest. “A person who talks like a book.”

“We?” Vin typed, “check the second cabinet, there's a drawer labeled 2b, we kept all our paper there, most of it’s digitally archived though, so you won't find much. It'd take a lot of power to turn on all the servers and then mine them for data. To be honest I'm running on fumes here, but if you could get me to somewhere with its own independent power, off the old grid I might be able to do more.”

“Where and How.”

“The new freedom HQ is on the new grid, but a better bet is the new palace, it draws eco from the catacombs, as far as I could tell when I had my sensors hooked up. If you could connect the power station to the eco circuit in there I'd be sort of fine here, but those monsters like chewing on the wires, and when they do it's terrifying. I try to keep the eco down in here so they don't show up, but it's not much use, they know I'm here. Either way you'd need to get into the palace in order to give me access.”

“How do we get you out of here?” and as an afterthought she added, “The warp gate is down.”

“Yeah, remember when I let the underground into the palace for a jailbreak? It was a major security flaw, so I don't have access anymore. They changed it to be like a private number, it can make calls but not receive them if that makes sense. If you can get me into the palace I could change it around to get you wherever you needed to go, but I can't from here.”

“Why not the eco mine, it runs autonomously.” 

“Negative,” the screen flashed. “Someone's turned it off manually, and it's not like you could walk me there.”

“Palace it is.” Ashelin typed, “How do we upload you once we're in?”

“You can't,” the screen flashed, and Ashelin made a face in response, turning to find Akrim in the darkness but not spotting him.

“Akrim?” she called out, and distantly after a few seconds came a response.

“I found Vin.”

“What?!” All she could imagine was the nervous wreck of a man secretly hiding in some hidden compartment, pretending to be dead for years while still alive. 

“He's a box. In a box? I'm going to poke it.” Akrim said, and Ashelin turned back to the screen reading what she had missed.

“You can't, you'd need to bring my physical components along and set them up, then give me permission to access the main computer and anything else you want me to work on.”

“Ashelin? It's not difficult, and I'm not going to do anything bad. When this blows over you can boot me out if you want to back here. I'm fine with that! My physical components need to access eco at all times, but there should be a large pair of battery packs that'd give you an hour at the least to transport me. It's just attaching the battery packs, taking the cords, then setting me up over there. Less work than a VCR. Same amount of letters though.”

Just as she finished reading a new paragraph popped up.

“Oh! You found me, or Jak did at least. Please tell him to stop touching me, the casing is pretty delicate and I've seen how he treats technology. His eco signature is enough to cause problems so please hurry.”

“Akrim,” she shouted, “stop touching the box!” there was silence but the screen cleared, popping up with a  _ Thank you _ instead, so she assumed it was fine. “Look for a something to carry him with and battery packs, we're going to take him with us.

There was vague shuffling from below and Ashelin had to respond to Vin getting increasingly nervous at her lack of replies. Eventually however it seemed Akrim had jury rigged together a way to carry Vin, his old floating platform charged up enough to hover, though not very high. 

“You'll let me know before you unplug me, right?” Vin asked yet again.

“Yes.” she replied, slumped against the desk and holding up her face. 

“Okay, just checking,” came his reply. 

After a minute Vin was packed safely onto the device, and Ashelin noted the safety bars had been mangled somewhat, but ignored it. 

Even with the power off the door was easy to open from the inside as compared to breaking in, so no one got trapped inside. She supposed it had something to do with eco riots in the old days. If the power station was well lit and it had supplies it would be a pretty good place to bunker down. Some group must have thought of it, escaping through the warp gate. 

The door was thankfully clear of anyone on the other side, and they set off towards the palace. 

It had been rebuilt, the wealthy patrons of Haven needing to show off that wealth by having the biggest and best houses. For what little it was worth she had rebuilt it to be better while putting the extra towards rebuilding elsewhere. 

Better in her eyes at least, she had separated the guard from politics as best she could, but due to the proximity of the catacombs came a whole new wave of religion that had thankfully died down after Veger left. The building separated into two parts, up, where they needed to go, and down into the catacombs and the makeshift track to Kras and Spargus. 

 Some people blamed the other towns for the outbreak, claiming that it was because they let outsiders in this happened. Then the other towns learned and pointed fingers. It was a huge mess. It was also another way people had tried to flee the city, so it was filled with them now, making the main entrance dangerous.

Akrim hefted Vin up onto the rooftops, with Ashelin following, both of them holding onto the floating object for support. 

“We're being followed,” Akrim commented, catching glances of hordes moving slowly to search for the source of the eco and then walk after them, still searching.

“I know,” Ashelin said back, trying to figure out which routes would be the best for evading them. 

The addition of Vin made for a rather uncomfortable complication, no jumps. He could only hover slightly over the ground, and he had made it clear that sudden starts and stops were to be avoided at all costs. It seemed she needn't have worried too much however, as apparently an arm or a tail counted as ground, and Akrim would just toss her across any large gaps and use his tail to encourage Vin to a point Ashelin could grab him. It was probably more rough than he would like, but it's not as if he could complain. 

For anything farther than that Ashelin tried using the rope gun, creating tightropes to slowly crawl along in hopes they didn't break. Akrim held one end of the rope, the net embedded into a wall on the other side, and Ashelin crawled along under it, keeping Vin floating above her.  

She had to adjust him slightly as she went, and had to match her pace. Eventually she got frustrated, or perhaps distracted, and Vin floated off the rope, tipping to one side. Ashelin gave a startled wheeze as she jerked her body to the side, making the rope swing and get a lot more slack as Akrim reaffirmed his grip. Her hand reached under the device, making sure it was upright and no longer falling. The proximity to her arm however made it shoot upwards out of reach, and the rope bounced her away from it. 

She had to quickly swing the rope to stop Vin from falling, only to send him speeding forward, and she had to drop her legs and swing around to keep him up, juggling Vin while trying not to let either of them fall to the street below. 

When she made it to the other side she was out of breath, and had to jog to keep Vin from floating off the end of the roof. Akrim, holding her net gun, waved. Rather than tie the rope and attempt to follow her lead, Akrim waited till Vin had drawn enough attention away from the road he wanted to cross, and walked. He handed Ashelin her gun back, which she holstered on Akrim, too tired to bother carrying herself. He gave her long look, ignoring her shrug. After a while Akrim relented, turning his glare to the path ahead instead.

By the time they reached the palace the street was packed with hordes of them and Ashelin felt a knot in her stomach, freezing in place. Akrim seemed similarly frozen, turning towards her slightly. 

Ashelin took a big breath in, lifting her hands up to cup her mouth like a megaphone and Akrim almost tackled her.

“Just kidding, payback for your running about earlier,” she murmured, and Akrim whapped her with his tail. Huffing and turning back to the hordes beneath them. He smacked her a few more times with his tail, just to be sure, and she elbowed him.

“How are we going to do this?” he asked, looking down at the entrance to the building.

“Up there,” she pointed at a balcony for some cafe a Kras investor put in, though it was largely pointless since no ordinary havenite would be able to take the elevator up to it.

“That's pretty far.” Akrim shifted uncomfortably as Ashelin pulled the net gun off of him and tried to gauge the distance, and clicked her tongue when it was a bit too much. She turned back to Akrim, holding the gun to face the sky and reaching out for him.

“No,” he snapped, standing up and taking a step away, guarding his back. “We aren't doing that again. We’d fall into the crowd anyway.”

“What's your idea then, make Vin wait here so we can supercharge his ride and fly there?” She said sarcastically.

“Would that work?” he asked, tilting his head.

“Do you have a spare battery pack?” Ashelin asked, putting a hand on her hip as Akrim glanced down.

“Yes.” 

And he ripped one of the battery packs off Vin, looking for a way to make the scooter use it, finally managing to connect it awkwardly so it scraped the roof until it kicked in the device started to float. He stepped on it beside Vin, pleased when it didn't even dip.

“This seems to-” he started to say before he was cut off by Ashelin clambering on too.

“Holy shit just go! There's a time limit till Vin dies and you just halved it.”

Akrim hopped off their ride, grabbing onto it and backing up. She tugged at him for a second, not really understanding.

“Hold on tight,” said Akrim, launching the device into the air above the street. She was falling, but not unmanageably fast, she pulled out the net gun just in time for the whole thing to lurch as Akrim slammed into it. Now they were falling. Ashelin fired above where they needed to go, but even then it wasn't quite enough. They were going to crash into the now curious and rasping horde.

“Grab Vin,” he ordered, ducking under her as the box was lifted.  He watched the balcony get closer but also farther away, squaring himself up. A slight wriggle was the only warning she got before he jumped, sending their transport hurtling below as Akrim clawed his way onto the balcony.

Unfortunately her hands were busy, so she had no way of stopping herself from falling, trying to squeeze as tight as she could with her knees as Akrim squirmed his way up. 

_ Drop the box. _ Her mind demanded, and she struggled for a split second against the idea, just long enough to start to really slip off, she let go with one hand, but automatically moved her hands to support the box as it started to slip from her one armed grip. And then the world was upside down and she squeezed the box closer in terror, unable to close her eyes. 

Her back touched something and she automatically tried to close her legs around it to stop her fall, taking in a sharp breath of air as her body jerked to a stop, looking directly at the people below tear apart what used to be Vin’s hoverstand. That would be her. As soon as they were done with it she was next.

The battery pack was ripped off of it and flung somewhere, inciting a minor riot she could barely interpret with all the blood rushing to her head and his sense of balance being assaulted. 

Vin was slipping and Ashelin knew if she moved her arm she might drop him, where he would fall and how too complicated for her to figure out at the moment. She pressed her face to the box, tensing her body and trying to orient herself using just her thighs and stomach muscles, gritting her teeth as she tried to sit up.

The plating on his tail was digging into her, reminding her of just how little room for error there was. Her head was throbbing and she couldn't breathe, trying too hard to keep her muscles tense so she didn't drop Vin or fall herself.

The metal was ripped apart by many hands, either for the sake of violence itself or to get to the traces of eco within. As soon as they finished with that they would look up and see her and everyone would die.

She had to stop her vague sit up and look down, or rather up at the carnage, putrid air from all of them hitting her nose along with she smell of dirt still present from the rain. The world seemed to spin, and then her grip to life started to move. This was it, she gripped as tightly as she could, squeezing her eyes shut and curling in on herself, her head bumped into something and she hissed before strong hands gripped her and she was yanked backwards.

It took a second of hearing the laboured breathing behind her and feeling the metal plating between her shoulderblades to realise she was laying on top of Akrim. And she gave a sigh of relief, letting her arms drop to her sides, Vin’s cube on her stomach and she tried to find the ground with her feet, legs slowly unclenching.

“Thanks,” Ashelin murmured, lips barely moving. “That was close.”

“Don't mention it,” he said back just as quietly, “Ashelin,” his fingers squeezing her upper arms, “Could you, um, my tail...” 

She looked down automatically, despite her view being obstructed by the box on her stomach. She parted her knees, releasing his tail to a relieved sigh sounding in her ear before his tail collided against the barrier; making an almost musical noise as the glass reverberated.

“Fuck,” he said as if resigned to it as the screams from below started. As Ashelin grabbed the box but before she could even stand up one had landed on the banister, it froze for a split second, perhaps making sure it’s spot was stable before it met her eyes and lunged. 

Wham- it crashed into the wall with a hit from her leg, though she was aiming to smash it in the face. It had already gotten to it's feet and shaken off the damage by the time Ashelin had jumped to hers. 

She nearly tripped over a chair as she tried to avoid it's next attack, narrowly avoiding getting gored by it. Akrim kicked out but merely grazed it, sending it stumbling backwards.

“Thing’s fast!” he said, rolling to his feet then having to narrowly avoid its counterattack. 

“Yeah,” was all she managed to get out, smacking into the glass door to the inside of the cafe. “It's locked!” she called out, but even as she said this another popped up and lunged, breaking through the glass.

“Not anymore!” Akrim said, kicking a table through the broken glass to clear the path a little before he charged through himself. Ashelin followed in time to see him swing a chair at one leaping for him and knocking it aside. He turned to her, swinging it behind him and she ducked as he threw it, the chair smashing into one then rebounding to collide with her.

“Watch it!” she snarled, racing forward as Akrim jammed his thumb on the elevator call button repeatedly before he just yanked open the door and nearly got tackled down the shaft, his claws scraping the wood floors as the infected soared down, hitting the sides as it fell.

Ashelin narrowly dodged the other before spotting her net gun, still slowly reeling itself up. She dashed for it, grabbing it and swinging out and up, the infected twisting to snarl at her as it soared underneath her off the balcony.

She shook the net down as the horde reached the balcony and the fast infected returned. The net gun reeled its net in and Ashelin tossed Vin in the shaft, shooting and catching him with the net. She grabbed onto Akrim. 

He let go of the door and scraped his way onto the service ladder, climbing quickly as Ashelin struggled to strap the gun securely to Akrim’s back with one hand. She eventually managed, glancing down to see the one she had tricked off the balcony opening the door. 

She pulled out her pistol cautiously. It looked up and tried to give chase, getting on the ladder.

“Watch your tail!” Ashelin shouted, trying to get a clean shot between its swinging. Akrim stopped and Ashelin leant out over the ladder and fired, two missed, but the third went right through the skull, and the infected slid off the ladder, falling backwards into the depth of the elevator shaft. 

Her ears were ringing from the shots, and she put away her pistol, hanging on tight as Akrim hurried up the ladder, tail back to its pendulum motion.

Clink, clink, clink, clink. Eventually she could distinguish the rhythmic tapping of Akrim trying to speed along the ladder, his breathing harsh. 

She tried to estimate if she'd be faster, or at least just as fast, but Akrim seemed to be faster here than on the ropes, making good time. She checked herself for any cuts from the glass, though the elevator shaft was dark, making it hard to tell. She didn't seem to be bleeding, and she looked at Akrim, but if it was hard for her skin it was impossible for his. 

“I'll carry myself,” she said, and slid down slightly, grabbing his tail for support.

“Wouldn't you prefer going up instead?” Akrim flicked his tail, demonstrating why he was making the suggestion. And while she didn't want to be smacked in the head she wanted extra security in case Vin started to fall.

“I'll be fine,” and she used him like a rope, sliding down to the ladder.

“Could you not do that?” he said, just as she smacked on the ladder to let him know she was on it. She smacked it again in answer.

They started climbing, Akrim’s tail sweeping over her head rhythmically, almost acting like a fan if she was close enough. Though at a few points she did go fast enough to bump into it, making Akrim jump, and at one point a squeak, at which point he half let go of the ladder to twist himself to the side to glare down at her and complain. Or more accurately, lift his leg up as if he was considering kicking her off the ladder.

The battery was dangerously low when they made it to a landing, the light blinking in the darkened corridor, and Ashelin took the battery out of her communicator to use to help bolster Vin’s eco reserve. The emergency lighting glowed dully as they ran to the central computer, it was rather uninspiring aside from the fact it was connected to every server and sat above most of the other computers. It was what government was supposed to look like. Subtle.

Ashelin pulled on the door to open it, the long rows of desks and computers visible through the glass, but the door was locked. She swiped her ID and help her finger on the scanner, but nothing happened. No power.

“Shit!” And she pounded her fist on the door, not that it'd do much good, this stuff was borderline bombproof. You could take this glass to space, not that it was exactly glass, mind.

Akrim grabbed something nearby and slammed it into the glass, letting out a confused mix between a hiss and a yelp, when the glass didn't even seem to vibrate from the hit or take any damage. The same could not be said for whatever the object was supposed to be.

“Can't break it,” she said, and Akrim slowly turned to glare at her, rubbing his wrist. “We need to power these two, or whatever you did to open Vin’s door earlier.”

“Where’s the breaker?” he asked.

“Inside.”

He let out a slight growl, tail whipping angrily and nearly hitting her.

“I hate this!” he said, more to himself than her, and scraped at the wall to try and uncover some mutual wire that powered both of them, bashing a hole in the wall and putting his face in it, blue sparks crackling to life.

The lights flicked on and Ashelin quickly repeated her previous actions, getting the door open. With frantic flicking of switches and running to the breaker one or twice they managed to get the computer on and Vin plugged in. 

“Is it working?” Akrim asked, staring at the blank screen.

“It's working.” Vin’s voice suddenly said, making Akrim jump. “Well, part of it is. I don't have access to everything, but I can do this,” he said, making his face appear as a hologram “Though you need to be standing in the right spot for me to see you, I don't have access to the camera's yet, just the communication’s one.”

Ashelin got into position, taking her seat and waiting for the program to process it before she started talking to Vin. He liked talking face to face, or at least as close to it as he could get. 

“Ah, Ashelin, talk about cutting it close huh? I thought I was a goner. Still you did save me, so thanks a lot you two, four? I don't know how many of you there are and I thought I heard someone new. Though it could be my voice recognition is shot, it's been months since I've spoken to anyone. With the power going down and all this happening, I almost thought everyone was dead!” his voice took on a twinge of fear, face twisting into one of worry for a moment. “Oh, but I'm really glad you didn't forget about me. I know I'm not quite Vin anymore, I can only exist on a computer, and I didn't really tell anyone I could die… again, so I'm really glad you came for me. Otherwise…” he fell silent.

“I'm glad you're okay, Vin,” Ashelin said, ignoring the alternative he brought up, hoping to move onto other matters.

“Where'd the book-talking one go?” Akrim brought up suddenly, whispering to Ashelin.

“What?” she jerked her shoulder upwards, pushing his face as far away from hers as she could, not wanting Vin to get spooked by him. Not that he would get picked up by the imaging software anyway, it was built to prevent stuff like that just in case people in the background were picking their nose, photobombing, or otherwise ruining vaguely important discussions.

“Book-talking?” Vin asked, the microphone apparently catching that.

“The text,” Akrim said, slightly upset, “the one using words on screen like words on a page. I wanted to say hi. Where's that one?” 

Akrim’s paws kneaded the ground, digging into the carpet, and Ashelin put her hand on her faces, fingertips massaging her temples. 

“That's me, I think,” Vin said, “Using this way of speaking would have taken up a lot more power, so I just used the screen to text with Ashelin. I'm still the same person, I-I can go back to that if you want?-” Vin said, voice getting jittery. 

“No,” Ashelin said, speaking for both of them. “This is is fine.”

“Texting,” Akrim enunciated, and Ashelin raised an eyebrow at him, until it suddenly clicked in her head; he was testing the word. Of course, he had never heard the term before.

“It's also called instant messaging, shortened to IM’s, though most people say messaging,” Ashelin explained to him quickly, and he nodded.

“I can talk to you that way if you want, multitasking is kind of my thing,” Vin said, and Akrim curiously tapped on a keyboard until a basic text box popped up on the screen in front of him, text scrawling along it. Akrim hunted down the keys he wanted, making loud taps each time he found the right key and pressed it.

“So Jak’s here too, he's normally kind of quiet, but Daxter isn't and I haven't heard a peep from him. Is he okay?” Vin asked, then as an afterthought, “he didn't hear me, right? I had enough jokes played on me when I had a body, I don't need anymore!”

“He's not here, and neither is Jak. They're both M.I.A, along with some of the others.” Ashelin said, her voice harsh.

“W-wait, h-he’s not? The eco signature was pretty characteristic of at least one or the other, most people have slight eco signatures within the spectrum range of four hundred to six hundred and intensity ranges of four hundred and fifty, no normal person could survive outside that range! It's-” Vin babbled and Ashelin snapped at him to spit it out. “Your friend is either like Jak or he’s very sick. About to die sick. About to explode kind of sick. I don't know Jak’s limit, but this much dark eco saturation is really unhealthy, It's probably not as bad as Jak mid transformation back in the days of the Baron, but it's still too much for a normal person with no way to get it out.”

Ashelin turned to look at Akrim, who looked back at her.

“I feel fine, I just have a major headache from the door,” he said, putting his head on the desk.

“We have somewhere you can lie down you know.” she said, and Akrim slumped away, further onto the desk.

“I don't want to have to clear every room,” he whinged, and Ashelin turned back to Vin.

“How secure are we?”

The discussion about access and security went on until Ashelin gave Vin access to security cameras, tapes and logs and he had to stop to pour through them. Many of the cameras were offline, but their tapes were automatically recorded so Vin could check out each one and determine which rooms were safe. 

“I think I've got it,” Vin said, “But in order to seal off doors I need another breaker restored so I can have power to the area. It seems they are programmed to shut down if there's a long time with no power changes, which means nobody turning of or on a light, changing temperature on a heater, turning something off, getting a coffee, just anything that uses power. It means no-one's here and shuts everything down, so there can't be an electrical fire or something. It's handy, but means trouble for us, well… you.”

“It's fine,” Ashelin replied, and she set off, Akrim lagging behind her.


	5. Chapter 5

“I hate this,” Akrim said, defeated as he stared at another electronic lock, laying his face against it.

“I’ll see if we can recharge the batteries,” Ashelin said, trying to placate him, even though they both knew Vin couldn't until he had enough breakers going that using more power wasn't going to break anything. 

Akrim let out a long groan, putting the wires in his mouth where they sparked, draining him of bits of eco.

They were quiet enough, but the bloodstained halls were enough of a reason to be careful, Ashelin entering the storeroom with her gun raised.

“Breaker at the back,” Akrim slurred, quoting Vin’s words from earlier.

Ashelin saw why this room had extra security immediately, and why the breaker had its own room at the end of this one. Barrels of eco were sitting on the floor, but there was no-one in sight.

Ashelin ushered Akrim in and locked the door, checking the back room before returning to Akrim and pulling out the pry bar to open the barrels. All of which were dark eco.

“Figures,” Ashelin spat, closing the lid on the fourth barrel, “We can't use any of this.” 

Akrim suddenly lifted his head from resting it on the wall, tail flicking.

“Why?”

“Dark eco,” she replied, “Dangerous to use, transport, or be near if you don't have the proper safety measures.”

“So the camp can't use this, at all, definitely?” Akrim said, padding beside her and peeking into the barrel.

“Definitely,” she said, taking a step back so he could put the lid down.

“Good.” And then he slammed his face into the purple goo as it crackled and sparked. Ashelin jumped back as far as she could, eyes wide and arms part way up to defend herself.

“What the fuck?!” Her noise of alarm wasn't enough to make Akrim raise his head out of the eco, tail flicking back and forth, his eyes squeezed shut and his muzzle deep in the goo.

“Doesn't that hurt?” Ashelin finally asked as the sparks traveled down his spine, making his limbs twitch. And Akrim lifted his head.

“Yeah,” he panted, almost reverently, “But it feels good more than it hurts.” and his tail gave a fluttery wiggle at the tip as he panted, small crackles of electricity fading into nothing after a few moments. He turned to look back at her, and seeing the perturbed look on her face explained. “It's like when your muscles are really tense, and you take a shower to fix it, but the water’s too hot.” He slumped slightly. “It hurts, but it fixes the problem.”

He let out a soft noise as he dipped his hand in, then put it on his head, apparently trying to cure his headache. “This hurts,” he whined slightly, tail flicking happily.

“Then stop doing it,” she told him.

“No.” And he dunked his face back in.

Ashelin rolled her eyes, heading to the back room when she heard the door handle behind her rattle a little bit, as whatever was behind it learned it was locked.

Ashelin kept her eyes on the door as she backed up. As the rattling got louder Akrim noticed it too, closing his barrel and backing up. Ashelin flipped the breaker, their original objective, and she saw the little lights under the cameras blink on, though the ones in the room remained off.

There was a knock on the door. An unnatural knock which sounded like it dug into the wood, like darts hitting a dart board, and in a slow metered pattern. A knock every other second. Just a single knock.

Ashelin turned on the light in the breaker room, keeping her gun trained on the door. Her eyes flickered to the camera once or twice, the lights flicked on where the knocking was, and then she heard the intercom turn on in the hallway.

“Ashelin, whatever you do, don't open the door.”

Vin turned off the light where she was, and she could see he was trying to get whatever monster was in the hallway to lumber away. He turned lights on and off, and used the intercom in far away rooms. Knock, knock, knock. It hadn't gotten faster, but now there was a grating noise after each one. Akrim padded up to her and tried to close the door between them, but she put her hand on it. 

Whatever plan he wanted her to silently get on board with was quickly ended when whatever was outside got angry.

Crack! The door was reinforced but whatever was out there had just put a serious dent in it. Akrim ducked out of the way as Ashelin crouched and got her pistol ready. There was a long creaking and the door was torn away from the frame, like opening a tuna can.

It was huge, larger than Akrim she guessed, and though there wasn't much light she could tell it looked wrong. The muscles had grown awkwardly, as if use hadn't factored into how they had grown. Barely used muscles huge, while only one strip of a group of muscles grew, lopsided and strange. All over them were fist sized lumps randomly placed. And then it roared. The door was tossed aside and Ashelin fired.

Twelve shots hit its face in quick succession and she reloaded. It roared and charged into the room. She stepped back, hand raising to protect her face. It crashed sideways into the wall and Akrim was snarling as he slashed at it with his claws, having taken it by surprise. Ashelin ran, escaping to the hallway and firing into the creature. 

Her shots did nothing she found, turning on the lights and not seeing much more than a slight redness in spots she had hit. It's skin was a marbled grey with purple veins bulging out. It tossed Akrim to the side and howled. Ashelin fired again and ran when it fixed its gaze upon her.

She couldn't feel her feet or hear her own breath as she ran, too focused on fleeing. She turned back to see its form lumbering after her, slashes revealing the lumps to be made of bone, thick spikes jutting out of its skin.

It tore around a corner, Ashelin taking pot shots at making it stagger and focus on her before Akrim launched himself at it, claws tearing across its spine to stop him sliding off and the thing tried to rip him loose, making to crash into walls while dark eco sparked over its skin. The two hissed and growled, battering each other and crashing around. 

Akrim was flung away to slam on the floor, making a scraping roll across it. The thing went for him and wasn't distracted by Ashelin’s shots anymore. It picked him up with one hand and slammed him on the floor. Akrim scratched against it with all four sets of claws at it dug into him with its. Akrim’s panicked scratching was tearing the strange creature's arm apart, revealing the warped bones under it, and it screeched, unable to hold him as Akrim scrabbled away.

The creature's attack was a lot less like an angry mauling and more deliberate, trying to cause more pain than damage. The thing’s claws had dug into Akrim’s side and had been twisted around and around, bolts of dark eco causing Akrim to spasm. It wanted them to suffer. Ashelin used the net gun, but the net was ripped apart in seconds. Still, it allowed Akrim to dash past her and the two got a head start as it charged after them. 

Ashelin glanced back, seeing the mangled arm repaired, or at least functioning and no longer bleeding. She swore and tried to run faster, skidding into an open side room and holding onto the door frame to stop. It skid past her, momentum keeping it from chasing her in there. 

Vin tried to quietly seal the door to keep Ashelin out of danger but she peered out into the corridor, stopping it from closing.

Akrim’s plan was different, he kept running. His speed was on par with the creature's and he kept running, trying to return to Vin and the strengthened glass she supposed, and he turned at an intersection in the corridor. 

“Wrong way! Akrim! Wrong way!” It was obviously too late however, as the thing quickly turned the corridor too. She ran out, telling Vin to find her best bet for a weapon.

She had just managed to get her hands on some poor sucker’s favourite baseball bat and was in the middle of telling Vin that strictly speaking this weapon sucked when Akrim burst out of a corner ahead of her, apparently having learned he could use his claws on the carpet. 

“Akrim!” he had turned the wrong way, having not seen her. There was an almighty crash as the monster exploded through a wall, plaster and wood bursting in every direction before it spotted her and charged. She swung out with the bat, hearing something crack as she smashed the creature's face.

It turned out that thing was its spikes going through the bat. She ran but it caught her leg sending her sprawling to the floor. It dragged her back and she twisted around, slamming her foot into it's face over and over, screaming. Akrim snarled, digging his claws firming into the creature's throat and making it drop Ashelin. She scrambled back, pain shooting up her leg and fired with the net gun again. She caught it's arm and yanked it away from slashing at Akrim. 

It yanked back, forcing the net gun out of her hands hand slammed itself against the floor, crushing Akrim. He seemed stunned by the impact, unable to get up as the monster ground him into the floor and turned to finished him off.

Ashelin threw her net gun at the creature, and it turned to sneer at her before gripping Akrim’s throat and turning its head to bite it out. An eco laser hit its face, Akrim apparently having been preparing that strike. It's face was burnt, but it roared and went for the kill. 

A bullet went straight through its head, and it slumped to the ground. Akrim wriggled loose from under it, stopping halfway to catch his breath. Ashelin holstered her gun, but thought better of it, approaching it carefully. The wound was healing.

“Fuck!” she checked her pack and pulled out the first thing that was solid and came to her hands, jamming the pry bar into the hole made by her bullet. She tried to break open its head that way but it wasn't working, Akrim grabbed the bat and started bashing the skull, trying to help.

Finally the bone was mangled enough that the pry bar cut through it like butter, dredging up the depths of its brain to put on display. It was no longer healing and blood soaked the carpet. 

Her leg hurt. 

Akrim dropped the bat and stumbled away before sinking to the floor. 

“Are you fine?” she asked, not willing to move her sore leg.

“No,” Akrim said, glancing back to look at her.

“Me neither.”

Akrim helped her limp to an overnight room and onto the lower bunk of a bunkbed. She bit her lip and hissed as she lifted her leg onto the bed, straightening it painfully and undoing her boot. Her foot was swelling and already she could see it was bruising heavily, apparently she had broken something when she was smashing it into the creature's face.

Akrim didn't seem to be in much better shape, he had a slight limp as well, and even with his dark blue skin in the harsh lighting she could see purple patches on him and the puncture marks on his sides. 

He pulled the first aid kit off the wall and looked inside before bringing it over. Ashelin remembered how excessive these first aid packs had seemed when she got them, but now it paying off. She took the cooling gel and sprayed it on her swellings. The eco had been stolen out of these long ago and all that remained was the physical stuff.

Ashelin flexed her toes, but just because she could didn't mean nothing was broken. She sighed, digging through and finding emergency candy, squeezing one into her mouth from the wrapper and doing the same for Akrim, both their hands were too bloody to do so directly. 

Ashelin glanced at her cooling spray before tapping at her side, getting Akrim to come over before she got his bruises, he flinched back and tensed, tail flicking in alarm before Ashelin donked him on the head with the can and he settled down, letting her get his leg. He didn't seem to take to it too well, but still stayed beside her and helped her dress her wounds before he got under some covers, slightly shivering.

She stared at the paneling of the bunk above her, trying to relax. Her hands were covered in blood and shook the first aid kit until she found the antiseptic wipes and ripped one open. She cleaned her hands before throwing the packets at Akrim, who grumbled before his eyes shone out of the dark depth of his blanket nest and he dragged the packets in.

She felt uncomfortable, not physically but on the inside, which meant she couldn't sit still, she reached for her communicator before remembering she left it with Vin and groaned. Akrim peaked out of his fort and made only a slight noise.

“It's nothing,” she said and sighed, “left my communicator with Vin.” Akrim lowered the blanket over his face, and Ashelin took a long breath, pointlessly digging through the first aid kit. After a few minutes of this Akrim lifted his head and huffed, dropping to the floor and resting his head on her bed. 

“I'm fine,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

“I didn't ask anything yet,” Akrim said, and as Ashelin opened her mouth he reached out and put a paw on her. “Ashelin, I understand that when you are upset you say you're okay, and then get really insistent that you are even when no-one says you aren't, as some dumb human idea of pride or leadership of how you should act.” Ashelin pushed his hand away so it wasn't on her face, folding her arms.

“As a human leader you still feel attachment to your people even when they have been changed to be unrecognizable. And you feel guilty when their actions lead to them getting severely injured. It goes against your human feelings to kill other humans, even when you are in danger. You  feel very hurt by it.” Akrim spoke, keeping his paw as a warm and heavy weight upon her. “You feel it is some personal failing as a leader, and so you try to appear untroubled as to have the image of a perfect leader, correct?”

“That's not too far off, I guess…” Ashelin said, relaxing her arms and wrapping them over one of her knees.

“Well it's annoying, so stop it.”

Ashelin laughed, she wasn't sure what she expected, sympathy perhaps. 

“That's reassuring, thanks,” she responded resting her face on her fist.

“You're welcome.”

She snorted, pushing Akrim’s hand off of her and getting comfortable.

“If it helps Vin has died once and was human. Perhaps he could shed some insight into the topic for you,” Akrim said, crawling back under his blankets and kicking out the sullied wipes.

“You just want me to leave because I'm making it hard to nap,” Ashelin said, dropping the first aid kit. There was a long silence.

“Mission compromised.” He held his hand like a phone and she snorted, throwing a pillow at him.

“I'll be out in a bit. Just want to rest my leg.”

Akrim made a nonspecific noise, tucking her pillow under his blanket. She laid back, arms under her head and closed her eyes, doing her best not to move.

After some uncertain amount of time she distantly heard what sounded like static,  _ Ashelin, Ashelin, _ it called. The light was flickering and she stumbled out into the hallway, the swelling on her ankle faded, though it was still tender.

“Vin?”

“Ashelin you're okay! Am I glad to see you, after that thing attacked, and you were trapped with that metalhead, I didn't even know there was one here and- right, your leg. Come back to the office, I'll pull up some medical reports and we can figure out what to do, I don't want to make you stand in front of an intercom this whole time.” The speaker shut off with an audible click, and Ashelin sighed before she went back and get her boot, squeezing her foot into it.She turned off the lights, soft whining telling her Akrim didn't want to be disturbed.

She sat down in front of the hologram of Vin.

“Hey,” but just as the word left her mouth Vin was cutting in.

“Ashelin I'm so sorry, I had no idea that monster was there, the camera records actually end pretty early on and they don't work too well in the dark and since nobody could turn on the lights I had to alter the programming to be able to turn them back on but since you were in a different area it didn't matter but-” She raised her hand.

“Vin, relax. We're fine, okay? No permanent damage.”

“I can't find your friend,” Vin said suddenly, and she opened her mouth but no words came out. “I looked but I can't find whatever guy you came here with on any of the cameras, it took a while to reboot the system because it kept trying to lock me out, security is pretty good here and so assigned as a program I couldn't do anything but open closed files, ones open or that hadn't been saved I couldn't.”

“You mean Akrim? He was in the room I was in.”

“What! W-when? After you and that metalhead went in there wasn't any movement for two hours and-”

“Two hours?” Ashelin grabbed her communicator checking the time against every other clock. “I must have fallen asleep,” she groaned, rubbing her face. “Vin, can you pull up that medical you were talking about, anything on the waterways or sewage system, the power grid, comprehensive reports on the virus or anything you think would be useful? I'm going to wash up and come back. I'll give you access so hold on a second.”

She made him his own account with admin privileges and left, digging around for her stash of spare clothes. It was part of the reason she had the tiny rest area made, if she got too consumed in work and forgot about some meeting or function with a dress code, or if someone or another had been working for a long time and needed to crash, or if some noble came down and bashed into some poor techie while being a pompous jerk and was yelling about how hard their suit was to clean. Or if someone was going up to the palace but they smelled terrible, that one was Jak. In any case there was a miniature living area next to the break room; No-one knew what the next city destroying event was going to be, after all.

She found some old clothes, sniffing them to check if they were alright. It was just a dress, quick and easy and people think you're dressed up rather than the truth of you stayed overnight. She took it, washing her hands in the kitchen sink while the microwave heated some military rations and the kettle some water to make herself some instant coffee, ones that didn't require milk to taste nice. She tossed the dress on the bed she had been occupying before she returned to Vin, holding onto the wall the whole way.

“My diagnosis is your foot is broken, or at least it has a stress fracture, it might have happened sometime during your fight, it's common not to really notice it  too much but then it gets really bad, you shouldn't use it for a while.”

“How long?” she asked, leg on the desk. 

“Four to six weeks? I'm not a doctor Ashelin, and we normally just give people eco, the only cases we have where we don't is when we couldn't because they were lost. Can you get a scan of it? What about Samos, he could fix it, he has a doctorate.”

“He wasn't exactly a doctor either Vin, and he was on the front lines of this, going around hospitals, I don't know where he is.”

“In the private hospitals as far as I can tell, the nobles set some up upstairs, I know that went against your orders-”

“Anything going on upstairs as far as you can tell?”

“Well, no.” He looked down, seeming to sigh and shake his head before he continued “And judging by the security footage things got pretty nasty. And I thought the metalheads were bad. I'm just going to erase most of this from my brain now.”

Ashelin sipped her coffee, checking her bag for any eco, but what she did have wouldn't fix her foot, and it still hadn't finished swelling yet.

“Can you see what the prognosis normally is after an x-ray? If they just pour eco on it?” She asked, and Vin’s hologram turned into a string of numbers as he diverted his attention away.

“Depends how broken it is, for the most part it's some sort of cast and some eco gel, but we don't actually know what's wrong.”

“Alright, let's talk maps.”

The discussion went over where probable resources were, what things Vin would like to be done, turning on various junctions, and what things were like in the Lurker village.

“You're working with a metalhead,” Vin said, and Ashelin had to compliment him on his voice software, because he made his voice the perfect tone to express silent worry and trying to restrain from judgement.

“It's desperate times, but Akrim is an ally.” She uselessly straightened some papers that had no relevance anymore.

“A metalhead, Ashelin. You know what deals with them are like, this isn't going to end well for anyone. You let him into this room too, there's tons of data in here he shouldn't have, we're just lucky he didn't open anything before, think of all the information he has to leak now. We don't know if this has affected them at all, we could be facing the same thing as four years ago but with even less defenses.”

“I’ve thought of this.” she said, handing her hands together.

“And he knows where the Lurker city is, they're part of this now too!”

“No- they're careful, we've never been in the actual city, just the under part attached to Haven.”

“Those things are smart Ashelin, they just have to have one of the flying ones take the same path above ground and they've found it. Look, Ashelin,” he said, eyebrows huddled together on his face, “Whatever way you slice it he's just a temporary ally, I know you hate it when people do this, but you aren't your dad. You can learn from his mistakes, and this was the one that got him killed.”

“I'm not my father and this has nothing to do with him,” Ashelin spat, taking her leg off the desk to lean forward. “This conversation is over.” she hit the button to end the call, though it did nothing because Vin was technically able to still talk to her, which he did.

“I died, Ashelin.” It rang out through the intercom as she stormed away, as fast as she could on a broken foot at least. She ended up wheeling a chair around, either in front of her or kneeling on it as she propelled herself forward.

She flicked on the light and the bundle of blankets groaned.

“Ashe?”

“I'm taking a shower, go back to sleep.”

Akrim ignored her, getting up and shaking off, holding a hand over four sets of eyes.

“Here?” he yawned, stretching before reaching back to scratch at his neck.

“Don't!” she shouted and he froze, glancing at his arms. His hands were clear of the thing’s blood, but she didn't trust they were clean enough to pick at a wound. He put his arm down. 

“Want me to go look for something to eat?” He asked and she shook her head.

“I already ate, there's food in the break room.” With that she gave him a little wave, taking a towel from under two of the beds and her clothes. 

The soap was always amazing in the palace, she never really noticed until she had it, went to lower quality stuff, and back again. Utterly fantastic. After drying her hair she rinsed her clothes till most of the blood was out and threw it into the miniature washing machine along with the towels, filling it. She forgot that the rest area was literally the best idea ever. Especially when they had that drinking party last year and someone threw up. Precursors bless the miniature washer.

She drank some of the longlasting juice in the fridge, surprised it was cold. Despite the fact she was in the break room there was no Akrim, a fact which served her well as she put her foot up on a chair, putting eco on her foot and bandaging it up, feeling slightly self conscious.

After she started her second cup of coffee Akrim came over, excitedly, bounding up to her.

“Hey! Come look!” he yanked her swivel chair making her almost spill her coffee and zoomed her over to the elevator, taking them up to the next floor.

The next floor had the lights working, meaning someone had been busy. Akrim wheeled her more carefully along the rug filled hallways until they came upon a kitchen with a large walk in freezer.

Hung up from the ceiling were huge slabs of meat, room filled up with four carcasses she assumed to be yakows. While Akrim seemed excited because of how much meat there was it was rotting; outside not red but with some blueish-greyish coating. And the smell wasn't that great either. 

“Isn't this great?” he asked, tail tip flicking.

“Akrim, we can't eat this.”

“We can just cut off the bad parts,” he said, and Ashelin choked.

“That is not happening,” she told him, and Akrim huffed, giving her chair a gentle shove out of the room while he grumbled.

“Humans got this food to rot specifically to eat but we can't eat rotted food, let me just throw out the vinegar and wine.”

“I'm sure if they did it'd need supervision and not just left on its own for over a month.”

“Let me just throw out the wine.”

“Fuck you,” she said finishing her coffee.

“No condoms,” he said and Ashelin choked, wiping coffee from her chin as she coughed. 

She was still coughing as Akrim rolled her into one of the rooms used as the level’s infirmary, breaking open the tall wooden cabinet with various medical supplies, searching within. Awkwardly enough exactly at her eye level she could spot condoms, which Akrim didn't even spare a glance to as he pulled out various things, finally getting to the eco at the back and handing it to her. She poured it under her bandages immediately noticing the bruises fade into her normal skin colour and the pain dull to be almost unnoticeable. She spent her time trying to use as little eco as possible while repairing her foot, testing her weight upon it as Akrim tried to put the entire contents of the cabinet into his bag.

“Don't take all of it, other floors also have medical rooms with supplies, and we may need to travel light on the way back.”

Ashelin started sorting through the supplies, organizing through the medical equipment and using the intercom on the wall to talk to Vin, discussing priorities.

“I think I've got this sorted,” she said to Akrim, “you can put it back on now.” She turned, holding the strap of the bag, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She stepped out of the room, gingerly testing her foot before walking around. She avoided the dried puddles of blood the best she could, calling out for him. When he didn't reply she asked Vin, who said he was in the kitchen. She wished he had told her what he was doing before she stepped into the room, jumping back at a jet of flame. 

“Fwoah! Shit. Oh my god.”

Somewhere along the line he had dragged along a barrel of dark eco and was now heating the metal with a makeshift blowtorch slash flamethrower. The eco was now bubbling dangerously and there was a metal spike in the middle of it. The eco was forming small slivers of eco that rose up to touch the ceiling and otherwise go beyond the metal confines of the container where it was safe and she hit a button to seal the door shut.

After a moment Akrim knocked on the door and she opened it.

“You're okay?” he asked, and she nodded, hand on her hip. “Okay,” and he closed the door. By the time she overrode the lock and opened the door Akrim was done creating a large fire and eco hazard, he had instead created a huge biohazard for himself, crunching and ripping into the large carcass of the yakow, now blackened, severely tainted with dark eco. 

It was slightly horrifying, more so when she realised he was prepared to eat the whole thing.

“You're going to make yourself sick,” she told him, at which he replied with something that sounded like nah in between ripping into the carcass. Bones cracked and very quickly half of it was gone, after that Akrim slowed down considerably, finally just lounging on the floor, chewing on a bit of bone, the rib cage and spine making up most of the leftovers as far as she could tell.

“That was educational,” she said, staring at the torn apart carcass and at Akrim, seemingly distressed from having eaten so much, making noises at the back of his throat and tail flicking. “Do you feel sick now?”

“I ate too much.” 

“Knew it.” She lifted her arms up as if pushing away a crowd. “Why’d you do that?”

“Eco is easier and safer to absorb through food and I wanted lunch,” He groaned as he rolled over to his side and then stood up. He shook himself off slightly, following Ashelin back to their stuff and then down the elevator. Ashelin with a bit of prompting was showing him how she was using it to get around earlier, which she recognized as a way to make her rest her ankle but still did it anyway. Or at least until Akrim slunk back into the room in order to nap.

After putting her stuff in the dryer she went back to Vin to pour over documents, checking on reports from what they believed to be the first case and the last ones recorded.

“What do you think, Vin?”

“Well, there's not much I can tell you that's not in that overview someone did. There's a bunch of symptoms, and after a while the time between first symptoms and what we believed to be the final stage got a lot shorter.” Seeing Ashelin look cross he spoke faster, “I can't make sense of a lot of this, but I can tell you that people's receptance to eco was increasing. That's probably how we got that monster in the hall.” His voice quivered on the word monster and he gave an imaginary shudder.

“Receptance… You're talking about dark eco,” she said.

“Yes and uh, no.” Ashelin gestured for him to continue and he did, saying, “People have a limit to how much eco can be in their body at once, their levels of eco. Most people have a level from four hundred and fifty to six hundred, which the same set of numbers as the eco frequency range uses, four hundred to six hundred.”

“And this virus increases their levels?”

“Yeah, er well no. Eco increases it. But the virus makes it so they can accept more eco, meaning a higher level.”

“And this is… dangerous?”

“Normally, yes, but the increased levels seemed to be stable, no deteriorating due to it at least. It's why people who work a lot with eco tend to have glasses, too much eco eats away at you and eyes are delicate, but some people can increase their tolerance. Normally only for a specific type of eco, the one closest to their baseline eco frequency.”

“But this increased the spectrum too?”

“No, which is why it's so weird!” Vin started babbling and Ashelin had to reel him back in and get him to explain it simply.

“Well, each person’s eco frequency tends to have it's own level attached to it. The higher the frequency the lower the amounts they can have. If you have a frequency of four hundred you'll have a level of six hundred, and vice versa.”

“So the virus doesn't affect your baseline eco signature, but then how did that one have dark eco? Why did you freak out about Akrim’s eco signature back then? Why can't we all have dark eco?”

“We can.”

Ashelin face and mind nearly exploded and so Vin had to backpedal quickly.

“Eco has it's own signature and level assigned to each one. We resist eco signatures too different to our own, so most people only take in dark eco when they are exposed to a lot of it. If dark eco is around in small enough doses, like in Haven, people can use that instead of other eco without ill effects, but it required a real lack of other types of eco. Most people during the baron’s reign would have been using mostly dark eco and not even known.”

“I'm guessing Dark eco is lower frequency but higher leveled?”

“Yeah, so Metalheads have more eco they can take in.” Vin said, slightly tense.

“And Lurkers,” Ashelin said.

“Negative,” Vin said sharply, voice taking on a slight robotic tinge for the word. “Lurkers actually have a higher eco signature, their ability to handle dark eco more is just they have a higher resistance to it than we do.” He then added on sheepishly, “There's not actually a lot on this, but I did a report on it at college once. Even before the forced labour trade there wasn't a lot of Lurkers in Haven City, and we think it's because of this.”

“Interesting,” Ashelin said, flicking through the pages Vin had printed out for her and looking at the overview with new understanding. 

“I-it’s kind of a morbid subject but, have you seen an infected Lurker?” he asked, tripping over his words. “I'm curious to know if-”

“They die,” she said, interrupting his spiel, “They don't really make it to the final stage.”

“This means the virus is more effective as a virus in Lurkers, maybe some difference in biology which makes it more deadly, I should- I should…” he paused, distraught look on his face. “There's nothing on lurker anatomy here, not even in the medical advisory services acts, it just says to keep in mind the differences, but not how or what those are.”

“Nothing? Not even from back when they had them taken care of by animal control?”

“Check ups weren't mandatory, and I guess those would be done by people outside the palace. There's records of it happening but not in the palace.”

“Yikes,” Ashelin commented and Vin nodded.

“Oh. Um,” he seemed to struggle to find the words, “Is the captain of the guard okay? Brutus?”

“Brutter is fine, don't worry.”

“Oh good!” Then Vin started to babble through his thought process, apologizing for getting Brutter’s name wrong and expressing how nervous he felt asking but felt he should, that sort of thing and Ashelin just let him get it all out, commenting it with an,  _ It's fine, don't worry about it _ , every now and then, which he ignored.

“You know,” he said, with a slightly strained laugh, “This is almost something the Baron would have tried to make.” After those words left his mouth he fell deathly silent.

“Ashelin,” he said seriously, with a slight air of remorse, “your father, he-”

“I know.” She sighed, “I know what he did, Vin.”

“If- if I helped him with this- the original me helped him with this, I don't know. It's not my area of specialties but I, I don't know. I know I couldn't have made something like this, th-there’s too much biology and I'm all theory, but I can't remember everything.”

“You didn't do this, Vin,” she said assuredly, “My father didn't do this.”

“There were so many projects,” he said, “So many that just got buried, wiped without a trace. I was more a physical components guy but th-there was a lot of projects that got cancelled and all records of them wiped out.”

“I know, Vin. He had… this book. And he'd write down the start and end dates for each project, and the key people involved. Insurance in case anything happened to him that everyone else would get dragged down too,” she said bitterly. “My father didn't make this.”

“H-how do you know it wasn't someone with his left over data?” he asked. “People took stuff. Especially with the dark eco warrior project. It didn't get wiped because it technically never ended. And Jak’s a hard person to match, he's a channeller, but if you could make someone one first then-”

“Vin, don't!” She was squeezing the table hard, trying not to shout again. “Erase the past few minutes from the cameras.”

“G-got it,” Vin stuttered.

There was a heavy silence between them and Ashelin noticed the camera lights blink quickly, resetting.

“Ashelin,” Vin started to say, and that air of trying not to judge was in his voice again.

“Don't,” she told him, trying to focus on the words on the page in front of her. “I don't know it's not tangentially related, I don't care. Knowing won't help me.”

Silence fell again, and Ashelin found whatever understanding she had before had slipped out of her mind. Words on the pages now just feeling like tedious strings of letters.

“What happens to metalheads when they get infected?” Vin asked, breaking the silence.

“They get infected, but they can't pass it on.” Ashelin said quickly.

“Then this really is one made for us,” Vin said, and Ashelin closed her eyes, teeth and fists clenched. “Ashelin,” he said.

“I don't want to hear it,” she spat. 

After a few moments Vin started up again, perhaps changing the topic or just saying what he wanted to.

“That metalhead, you know you can't let it go anywhere, you can't send it home in case it spills secrets. The ones that talk are the most dangerous, right now it's fine, but if it gets a chance to go home or this ends there are only two choices. You know this. I hate that you know this, Ashelin. But you're too smart to think otherwise. You're too nice for this job. You care too much.”

“Better than not caring at all,” she said darkly, looking off into the room somewhere.

“Yeah, but there comes a point where it's too much. This is that point.”

“What do you want me to say, that I don't know what to do? When this is all over I need to keep war off my hands by any means necessary, but I don't need to be thinking of that every single day. I'll deal with it, Vin. But not a second before it's necessary.” Her fist hit the table as she spoke, frustration and anger bubbling up inside her.

“Just… don't get too attached. I'm sorry there's not a lot I can do,” Vin said, holographic face flicking as it looked down.

“It's fine, Vin. You've done a lot already.” She held her hand out in a soothing gesture, giving him a small smile.

“That metalhead,” he said, and Ashelin groaned, dropping her head to the table. “Oh no, it's not that,” he said quickly, and there was a knocking on the glass door. Akrim waiting patiently outside it.

Ashelin waved and told Vin to let him in, which he did and Akrim wandered down the stairs to join them.

“Hello.” he said, sitting on the floor beside her.

“Keep your face away from my face,” she told him, pushing on it slightly. “You smell like meat and batteries.”

“Oh, well we know who caused the second part.” Akrim, pushed his face against her hand, getting a little closer.

“No,” Ashelin warned him, putting both hands on his face and pushing.

“Smell what you created, Ashelin, retribution is at hand!”

“Also face,” she commented, and Akrim let out a little huff.

“That too,” he said, pausing before squirming against her hands.

“No!” but she was obviously entertained cheeks pulled up into a half smile. They pretended to struggle for a bit, Ashelin’s chair rolling back as she pushed against him. She kept her arms firm and soon the chair was going across the floor and Akrim got a knee on it as well, chair hissing and sinking due to their combined weight, managing to roll a bit before there was a crunching noise, the wheels breaking off the chair and causing it to tip.

Now that the chair could no longer move Akrim was suddenly very close to her, still applying a slight pressure to her hands. His arm slung onto the back of the chair to keep it balanced.

“Seriously though, your face is probably a biohazard due to the dark eco and rotted meat. Do not put it too close to me.” 

Strictly speaking the rest of him wasn't much better, even with the wipes from earlier. But still, he moved his face away for what good it did. Ashelin quickly pushed the hem of her dress down too as Akrim pulled back to sit in front of her. To which his attention was drawn to immediately as it fluttered before he looked back up at her, seeing her slightly upset.

“It looks nice on you,” he said, assuming it was the garment she was displeased about. “It's very blue, makes you look good.” 

Seeing her quirk her brow he assumed she had been sated and was now sufficiently comfortable, he turned back to her desk and papers, picking one up.

“What were you talking about?” he asked, flicking through the papers nonchalantly.

“None of your business-” Vin started to say, though he sounded frightened.

“Reports on the infection. Vin used to study eco so he was explaining one or two of the things mentioned,” Ashelin interrupted. 

“Okay,” Akrim said, no longer rummaging through pages and sitting politely, looking up at Vin expectantly.

“We're done with that!” Vin squeaked, teeth ready to nervously chatter.

“Alright,” Akrim said, and his tail flicked for a moment. “What's your favourite colour?”

“Oh um, let's see uh, blue?” Vin said, tripping over his words.

“I like grey, or brown, they're nice colours,” Akrim said happily, much to Vin’s bewilderment.

“Alright, we have real stuff to do, save those for later or something,” Ashelin said, shooing him away from her spot. Akrim went back to his keyboard from before, typing to Vin slowly. Real stuff to do turned out to be deciding whether or not to laminate certain documents, and deciding what would be the most effective way to maintain contact with Vin when they were back at base along with other miscellaneous details.

“Ashelin,” Akrim said, breaking her stride in solving small details. “Aren't we going home?”

“What?”

“The time.” Akrim pointed to the screen in front of him and Ashelin turned to look at the clock. It was already past five.

“Ah, shit. No, forget about it, we're sleeping over here tonight. I'll phone Brutter, you can- you can go shower actually. You've been covered in blood for hours now. Go, it's  gross.”

“Maybe it's to confuse our enemies,” he said and Ashelin pointed. 

“Out.”

Akrim typed something, hitting the enter key before he turned off the monitor and left, limp from earlier in the day gone. For a few minutes Vin and Ashelin worked properly before Ashelin made her phone call. Apparently everyone there was busy, so Ashelin could only leave a message for Tess and then slouch back in her chair, foot throbbing up on another chair nearby. Vin waited for her to finish sighing before he opened his holographic mouth, but she had already started.

“What's his threat level now, Vin? Still think he's worth twenty warnings?” she said, a little snide, resting her arms behind her head.

“He didn't say anything suspicious, but that just makes him more suspicious!” Vin said with a burst of static and she laughed. “I'm serious, he didn't ask anything important, or anything about this place, or what I used to do, nothing about anything at all. It's like a conversation engineered to be unobtrusive and nonthreatening.”

“So, small talk?” she deadpanned.

“No it's… A-Anyways, Ashelin, if things start up... I can keep him here if you want.” Her brow furrowed in confusion but he kept going, saying, “There's enough food, especially since he can eat the stuff that's slightly rotten.”

“You're not talking about building a second base here,” she tested.

“That'd be nice, don't get me wrong, I'd love to have people to talk to, but if you want you can leave him here, so long as he's not in this room there's not a lot he can do to get out. Y-you know?”

“I can't go back by myself,”  _ but it's a solution. _ She could alway come back with a group and leave Akrim behind with Vin. Then she wouldn't have to worry about killing him or finding a way to keep him trapped later. It wasn't that bad of a plan.

“I'll keep the option open for you. That way you can decide later,” Vin said, cheerfully.

“Aren't you scared of him?”

“Oh terrified!” Vin admitted, “but you saved my life, there's been enough bloodshed for you already, you don't need anything on your conscience. I know it would be,” he said, “It's not as if you're friends, but he's someone you can almost convince yourself could be reasoned with. That's what would get you the most.”

“You're right,” she said, putting a hand to her forehead and rubbing in small circles, “I'd feel guilty.”

The rest of their conversation quickly died out and Ashelin decided to go get more coffee and check on her clothes before she hunted down dinner, the freezers apparently didn't shut down which meant she could find something nice. She did and eventually Akrim padded up to her and tried to take some for himself, getting discouraged when she lifted her plate away and put his head in her lap, waiting for scraps.

“Didn't you get enough earlier? That much should feed you for about a month,” she commented, indulging in some apple pie.

“I could eat,” Akrim said vaguely, and Ashelin testingly gave him a thin slice, which he politely nibbled, taking chunks out of it. That one piece seemed to be enough to sate his desire for any more, or at least he didn't ask for anymore, merely settling for curling up beside her feet. 

He wriggled slightly and Ashelin got the hint, taking off a boot and resting her foot on him. She petted him with it too, while she was at it. Noticeably his stomach stuck out a bit more, which was a mixture of unsurprising and totally expected. These things were bound to happen when one tried to pick clean half a carcass. And yet he still had room for dinner. What a monstrous appetite. she was almost jealous, she'd love to eat tons of food with no repercussions. 

Feeling curious, she took a chunk of the crust and held it down to his face, which he took, munching on it quietly.

“How much can you eat?” she asked, gazing down at the metalhead

“A lot,” and seeing her glare at his vague response continued, “Maybe forty pounds at once, then a bit more after it's digested a bit.”

He could literally eat a small child in a single serving, and then still have room for dessert a few hours later. It was lucky that they didn't let him near the one or two at camp. She wondered it the reason he wanted to leave so much was food. He did always eat a lot when they found a stash, was he just a glutton or wasn't he being fed enough, either was possible. 

It was lucky they hadn't had an incident before now.

Akrim shifted under her feet and she flinched back, causing him to glance up at her. She got up and pulled beer out of the fridge. Alcohol was prohibited in the workplace, but this was the palace after all, it came with the territory. She took a seat and Akrim scrambled up to look at what she had, watching her pop the cap open with ease and leaning forward to sniff at it after she finished taking a sip. He pulled back after smelling it, apparently uninterested.

This of course meant Ashelin offered it to him, propping it under his nose every time he finished turning his head until he finally turned his back on her, tail flicking.

She eventually got him to take some, though he complained. And with nothing better to do they decided to go to sleep. Akrim lent her his arm, but she didn't really need it. Upon reaching the first room Akrim took his arm back.

“I'll let you have this one,” he said, “room A, for Ashelin.”

“You're not sleeping here?” she surprised herself by asking.

“Correct, I am not.” He made to leave and Ashelin shuffled uncomfortably the doorway, which made him turn to observe her. “There's no danger on this floor anymore, so I have no reason to keep you company.”

“Nice,” she said sarcastically, heading into her room and making the door close behind her. True to his word Akrim didn't come to bother her, so she did some stretching and light exercises before she adjusted her ankle, checking on her makeshift brace before she laid down to sleep.

Tomorrow would be the difficult part.


	6. Chapter 6

In the dark she saw something, eyes peering at her from between slats in the ladder in the bunk across from hers. For a while it was fine, then it filled her with an immense dread and she woke up with a start, heart hammering in her ears she pushed the covers off her and sat up, flicking on the light.

There was of course nothing, she had been dreaming. Nothing more. The image hid behind her eyelids and wherever she turned in the shadows, preventing her from turning off the light and getting more sleep. It was stupid, baseless paranoia, and she just needed to calm down enough to rest.

She checked the time, too late to bother getting back up and too early to start preparing to leave. She could always bother Vin, but a part of her would just feel silly, and the other part was certain he'd make things worse by chattering about his own fears that lurked in the dark. She was too tired to work either.

She got up, blankets wrapped around her frame as she went to get a drink. But even that wasn't as soothing as she hoped, the hallways were dark and ominous. Bloodstains were soaked into the floor at points, and it was entirely too open, she couldn't observe every branching hallway.

Feeling anxious and slightly foolish she made her way back to her room. As she got to it she stopped and considered, she did have another companion here. Her wariness and her pride clashed, and she found herself peeking into the room with snores coming from it.

Akrim was fast asleep, his skull gem glowing faintly in the dark. Even as she shook him lightly he stayed oblivious to her, breathing slow and deep. On one hand it was reassuring he was sleeping so well, on the other it meant in the impossible scenario there was a monster prowling about he wouldn't wake up if it came around.

She wished he had taken an upper bunk, because the lower one was barely big enough for him, let alone her sitting on the edge, and she wouldn't mind his tail hanging down so she could touch it and reassure herself.

She huddled close to him in the dark, torn between waking him up or just petting him till she calmed down. It seemed her choice was made for her, when he let out a sleepy yawn and yellow eyes focused on her in the dark.

“Shnn?” was the noise he made, lifting his head slightly.

“I couldn't sleep,” she explained, and Akrim seemed to pat himself down, rubbing an eye before sitting up to make space for her, yawning again. She moved in, ducking carefully as to not bump her head on the bunk above. She too had to stifle a yawn as she curled up slightly on the mattress, arm on Akrim’s stomach. They stayed like that for a time. Ashelin was slowly taking over the bed and Akrim resigned to get up, surrendering the bed to her but taking his blankets with him.

Rather than just hop in another bunk he dragged the mattress off one of them and laid it on the floor. He patted her hand reassuringly before he curled up to sleep. During the night she dropped her hand to reassure herself he was there, though his skull gem acted a little like a nightlight. Keeping her hand on his warm skin she started to doze off. 

She woke with a start when her hand touched the cold side of the bunk hours later. It was morning, and after a quick meal it was time to go back, and after checking the bottom floor was still crowded they decided to try the warp gate, though not without major trepidation on Akrim’s part.

“Alright,” Ashelin burst out of the warp gate into the palace. “That is my second time having to travel back to get you. Get in the damn ring.” She walked behind him and started to push him towards the warp gate. His claws dug into the carpet as he shook his head. “This ain't up for discussion. Get in the ring, you fat dinosaur.” She had given up coaxing him and was now pushing with all her weight, digging her elbow into him as she struggled.

Akrim wriggled, but she was expecting it this time and didn't let him pull back and have her start all over again. “No!” he told her, struggling, “It's bad. I don't want to!”

She merely tried to push harder, and as she got under his center of balance and bumped him closer he hissed at her, growling, snarling, and snapping his jaws. As he was edged closer he batted her lightly with his claws not aiming to scratch her whatsoever, so Ashelin paid it no mind other than snapping at him to fuck off.

He tried to run, suddenly stopping his resistance to race away from her and the ring, but Ashelin had a firm grip on his harness and knowledge of where to jam her leg to trip him up. 

“Akrim, I swear to god I will use the net gun and drag you into this warpgate.”

All other options exhausted, Akrim went limp and dropped to the floor, pinning Ashelin’s leg and dragging her down too. There he started to whine and make other pitiful noises as Ashelin cursed and shoved at him ineffectually. This only made him get louder however.

“I will leave you here!” she shouted, smacking him.

“I'm okay with that,” he said quickly, “let's stay here and help Vin! There's lots to do and enough supplies!”

“I'm not staying here, but you can if you want,” Ashelin said, getting her leg free and grimacing.

“Alone?” he asked, “I am not skilled enough to take one of those big ones down by myself like this.”

“Well it's either that or get in the ring with me. I'm not waiting.” She got up, and this time Akrim was the one hanging onto her and stopping her from where she wanted to go.

“We can wait for the ones down there to move, the power station will be blocked again by now anyway,” he tried to convince her, voice speeding up. “I can't go through there, I'll get stuck and sealed away and trapped forever!” he wailed as she suddenly twisted and threw them both off balance and hurtling into the ring.

Warp Gates were the fastest way to travel, and if they were uncomfortable normally they were worse when you were spinning. Pressure bore down on them from all sides in the multicoloured tube that bent space and time. Ashelin, used to the rifts by now, righted herself quickly, though it was perhaps anyone's guess to if she was upside down or not now. She was at least facing the way she was traveling and going at an alright speed, which was more than she could say for Akrim. He had tried pushing her away in order to escape the rift but had just sent himself whirling wildly, to which he responded by curling up as tight as he could. This just made him spin faster and he didn't seem to know how to stop.

Ashelin landed on her hands and flipped over onto her feet before she took a few steps to the side out of the way. Akrim barreled out of the warp gate a few seconds later, and he twisted in mid air so his feet faced the ground before he crumpled, claws making a strange scraping sound as he shook.

It was only by the light of the warp gate she was able to tell which end his head was. His eyes were squeezed shut and his skull gem was pitch black, or at least looked it in this darkness. She turned on her flashlight and poked him. He opened his eyes and fixed them upon her before he stopped scrunching so much and hesitantly got to his feet. His head was ducked low but his skull gem started to regain its glow, though it was far more muted.

Ashelin watched the warp gate flicker off and pulled out her pistol, walking towards the exit. Akrim crawled over and she waited for him to open the door a little ways so she could peer outside, turning off her flashlight.

In the dim light she could tell a few of them were standing outside, too close for comfort. Just as she was about to tell Akrim to close the door there was a crackling noise from outside in the distance. The infected nearby started walking towards the noise, clearing the area.

“Vin?” Akrim whispered, and Ashelin nodded, stepping out into the street. They let the door close with a clunking noise before they hitched themselves up onto the roof and started to make their way towards the sewer entrance. Unluckily the rooftops weren't empty, and various figures limped along them.

Akrim started to prove his worth again by stopping Ashelin from jumping down onto a shadowy roof that had one slumped against the exhaust portion of a ventilation system. The sun was brightly shining as they made it onto the main drag to the sewers, and it wasn't pretty.

The tarps had been torn to shreds and some of the metal barriers warped or otherwise broken. There was a strong smell of something both burnt and oily, and as they got nearer to the sewers there were burnt scraps of fabric melted to the ground. There were also blood stains, through from the drag marks and bloody metal spikes left around they hadn't died.

Further along they found the source of the smell, a few charred bodies were slumped in the streets and beyond then the sewer entrance, doors open and elevator beyond it broken, an army of them scrabbling on it.

“Guess we'll have to find a different route,” Akrim said redundantly as Ashelin crouched down, dispassionately checking burnt pockets. She pulled out a gate pass and ripped off the casing, seemed like this one was an old man.

Its hand grabbed her and yanked. It couldn't pull her to its mouth from this angle, though its milky eyes looked at her. Ashelin yanked her arm away, wrenching herself backwards and landing a solid kick on it, its bones cracking.

She scrabbled to her feet and they ran. Moans and their snarls behind them. They were up on a walkway when one finally sounded the alarm, and below them infected scrambled to get up. They turned to run but an infected dropped from a roof in between them and they had to dive to avoid it.

It seemed no worse from the fall and it swung out against them bounding forward to try and bite Ashelin. She caught it under the arms and flipped it onto the ground before she was yanked away. The world spinning before she land with a clatter on her back, wind knocked out of her. Akrim was obviously being more harsh in revenge for tossing him through the ring, though she could see him below on the walkway as she rolled over.

They had him cornered, and one managed to leave long scratches on his side as he struggled, they had him off balance and unable square up to jump. More were coming from the other side and Akrim and to stand up and take a sudden step back, only there wasn't room and he hit the barrier and stumbled, tipping over the side.

He vanished from sight and there was a furious screeching and hissing from below. Ashelin struggled for breath, getting to her knees. Some of those screams must be Akrim, but they were all inhuman. Suddenly she saw him dashing into the distance, most of the horde following him though one or two howled up at her from below. She could tell he was wounded, red sticking out from the rest of him. It was probably too late for him now, in the distance a horde racing towards him from the direction he was going.

Ashelin stumbled up, but in the moment it took and she pulled her eyes away the streets were filled with them and she had to hurry away while she could.

She scampered along the rooftops, having to clamber over the oddly shaped terrain and hope ledges weren't too tall. Her foot started to throb, but as she paused she heard footsteps that weren't her own, creatures dogging her from twenty meters back, though they hadn't alerted anything else yet. She staggered forward, grabbing onto a rusted fire escape and heading down, screaming audible in the distance.

She bashed on a door, thankful when the weak deadbolt popped like butter after a few hits. She scrambled inside, ducking around the corner and managing a few steps before she heard the door bang again and heavy, awkward footsteps walk in.

She ducked automatically, creeping around the first object she saw and trying to control her breathing. The footsteps drew closer and her eyes darted around for a better hiding spot. There was nothing but empty walkways and a few barrels, and she huddled up the best she could, putting the net gun into her hands.

Her heart was hammering in her ears as her breathing got shallower, and she held it as soon as she heard the creatures turn the corner. Their footsteps were slow and cautious, and from the smell alone she knew it wasn't survivors. They passed her without a glance, and Ashelin tried to quietly match the timing of their footsteps as she creeped behind the barrels again. They stopped and she froze, not even breathing. Then the footsteps clanked away and she sneaked around the corner and back onto the fire escape, breathing hard as the wind whipped past her.

Somehow she made it to the slums without incident, only having to shove one off a roof and out of her way once. She went to a building she knew was clear, though all the food was gone, at least from the upstairs portion. Brutter worked fast.

She collapsed onto the sofa in the psychologist's office, keeping her foot elevated and checking on it as it throbbed intermittently. It didn't hurt to move it and there was no bruising or deformations of any kind at least.

She was too tired and sore to move, and so she ignored her stomach. Biting her lip and waiting for the feeling to pass. Her throat was also dry and the only spot to refill her water in here she knew of was blocked off.

She checked the time vacantly after staring into space and feeling up her leg. She had wasted an hour doing so and it was with a jolt she realised it was already past three.

Her foot was still throbbing, but it wasn't painful, and she opened the door. Or at least she tried to, the door bumped into something that skittered away as the door was opened. She pulled out her gun as a familiar metal face peeked around the door at her reproachfully.

“Akrim,” she let out a sigh of relief and put her gun away, kneeling to get a good look at him. 

He had long ugly scratches along his sides and he refused to open one of his eyes and Ashelin had to force it open, slightly taken aback by the large and suddenly visible pupil before he squeezed it shut once more.

Wounds needed to be disinfected and so she pulled out the bottle after making sure she had a firm grip on him. If he was fine now it was unlikely he was infected... Though the symptoms could always differ, they only saw infected metalheads after they went nuts and attacked the city, not any of the build up. Metalheads showing up was always a disaster, but just one of the infected ones meant at least fifty people severely injured. 

Maybe she should have left him with Vin after all. She found what looked to be a claw embedded in him and pulled it out as he hissed, blood spurting out as she broke the scabbed up parts. A bit of eco fixed him up afterwards and he settled down as Ashelin finished fixing him up.

“Thank you,” he rumbled, touching his face to her side delicately. She petted his head before he blinked up at her and she realised he wanted her to fix his eye.

He hissed under his breath, and tried to move away from her as it got in his eye, but she held on. His eye looked startlingly different for a moment, no longer the eerie empty and dull shiny yellow. A large pupil was trying to focus on her, becoming a pinprick of a line as the light hit it. It was still yellow, but there were whites in the corners that were bloodied and painful looking. Eco cleared that up and she got a glimpse of it before he blinked a few times and it was back to normal. As normal as a metalhead eye could be at any rate. 

They skulked around and scavenged some food while heading towards an entrance to the waterways. The sky was clouded over but it was still light enough to see. Then it started drizzling. They scrambled over the roofs as quickly as possible, if it got too wet there was no way they could use them. And the sewers could become deadly if it got rained out.

In the distance a sharp howl bubbled up and the two froze in alarm. When it bubbled up again they skittered off the rooftops to the ground.

“But it's not night yet,” Akrim said, as the two tried to look for somewhere to hide.

“Try telling him that.” 

Ashelin jiggled door knobs, kicked over doormats and did everything in her power to make it inside one of the buildings. 

Akrim got the gist of it and helped her search for a key, and eventually they barreled inside a building, locking the door behind them and clearing each room. They pulled down blinds and closed curtains so fast they nearly broke something. Even the boards already on the window didn't give them much security. There was scraping, scrambling, and snarling as the streets came alive, hordes screaming over nothing. If one got in they were fucked.

They split up to look for enclosed rooms with no windows. After opening a broom closet she turned to follow Akrim into his door, but he shook his head and they went upstairs, hearing glass shatter from somewhere. The room they decided to slip into looked to be a kid’s room, there were no proper windows and they shut the door behind them, ducking down until the rush of infected storming the rooftops and thundering through the streets calmed.

They were going to be stuck till morning and Ashelin decided to investigate, checking the other rooms with Akrim. He took point this time, skulking around ahead of her, though he probably didn't know what- if anything- she was looking for. She managed to get a menagerie of candles and set them up in the enclosed room. At night any eco usage was dangerous.

“You don't want to go in there, Ashelin.” Akrim didn't impede her in any way and he didn't make any motion to do so. It was the same room he directed her away from earlier. “It'll make you sad.”

She opened the door, it was a bathroom. It had a large tub and in it sat two people cradling a third. The water around them was bloody and the room smelled horrific. They had been dead a long time. Even so she could tell it was a set of parents and their child. They had killed themselves.

Ashelin turned and left the room, hand over her mouth. On the walls were many pictures of the family being happy together along with friends or relatives. There was even homemade gifts displayed here and there. She returned bitterly to the child's room, sitting down and trying not to notice how lived in the place was before dust settled over everything.

In this room too there was a picture, a small gaggle of children with the one in the middle holding a soccer ball. They all had matching hats and sunscreen on their noses. “ _ Get well soon!”  _ someone had written on it, the letters clumsy and misshapen.

Akrim settled beside her, sitting on the bed with his feet on the floor. “Why do you force yourself to look at these things.” 

Ashelin shrugged, though she understood it wasn't really a question. “I have to,” she said, “it's my job.”

“That's not a leader's job,” he told her. “Your job is to understand things, then make decisions. You already know the reality of the situation, why constantly remind yourself when it hurts you?” His tail tried to flick back and forth on the bed, knocking into the posts until he just let it slip off and flick against the ground instead. Ashelin leant back a little and sighed.

“I was a guard before I was Governess. People's livelihood was always my job, and their deaths as well.” She glanced at him before shaking her head, staring at the burning wick of a candle. “It just means something.”

Akrim huffed, and she suspected he rolled his eyes. “It's an event, not random, but if you understand why it's not random that's enough.” He opened his mouth to say more but she interrupted him.

“If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

“Yes,” he answered immediately, making Ashelin shoot him a dirty look.

“Let me rephrase,” she said, rubbing her temples. “Say… a picture is in a locked room and you can't and will never see it. Is it pretty?” Akrim feel silent, tail flicking.

“I don't know,” he said after a while, so long that Ashelin almost thought he had ignored her, “I can't answer that.”

“If a tree falls in a forest and nobody will ever see it, or be affected by it, does it matter?”

“I guess… Not to us at any rate...” Akrim said uncertainly.

“But if someone came across it?”

“It’d matter.”

Ashelin nodded at his response. “That's why.” She shrugged, shuffling her feet on the ground.

“So you give something meaning by observing it, is that it?” he huffed. “How egocentric. I viewed the room before you, and it's quite possible someone viewed it before us too, since there's no food here.”

“Yeah, but it didn't  _ mean _ anything to you, did it.” Ashelin said scathingly, “Just context. An answer to the question of where the inhabitants were and a landmark.”

“That means something,” he said, and Ashelin folded her arms looking away. She wasn't inclined to answer regardless, but the horde returned, forcing silence.

Even after the horde quieted she couldn't help thinking about it. Thoughts twisting bitterly around her head, going over the tragedy, Akrim’s remarks, the feeling that she could have somehow stopped this, and her anger at herself; for caring more about Akrim being stupid than about the poor family downstairs.

She huffed. A pillow protected her back from the solid wall while she was hunched forward, her leg hanging off the bed. Akrim, who had moved to the ground, lifted his head to look at her. When she said nothing he put his head back down. His tail flicked back and forth.

“Why did you think it'd make me sad?” she asked, staring at a flickering candle.

“Because they were dead.”

“Any particular reason these deaths would affect me more?”

Akrim didn't speak, but his tail flicked back and forth as he was thinking.

“One was a child,” he said, head turning to peek up at her, to see if that was the right answer. When she didn't reply he struggled for one, tail whipping and sliding across the floor.

“Anything else?” she asked. Upon receiving no response she scrubbed at her temples and sat up a bit straighter. She slid forward to sit on the edge of the bed, putting her feet on the floor and Akrim sat up to meet her gaze. If he really didn't know she couldn't be mad.

“They,” she started to to say before she hesitated, her voice thick and uncertain. She tried again, voice clear. “They killed themselves.”

It took Akrim a moment, until finally he said, “oh,” and looked away. He seemed to have some internal struggle at this news. His eyes narrowed, tail sweeping the floor, and claws kneading the carpet.

“I don't understand,” he said before looking up at her. “Wouldn't that make you less sad?”

“Less-” she started and Akrim held up his hands to shush her. She jerked from him, scowling. “What the fuck,” she snarled at him, sheets twisted in her fists.

“They weren't murdered, they did it for them,” he gestured at the picture she had been looking at. “To keep them safe.”

“God, are you fucking-” he shushed her again but she smacked his hands away- “you've got to be kidding, they were scared. They were sad. They thought this whole thing was hopeless. This wasn't some noble sacrifice, they took their lives because of all of this. Their child got sick and died, and they killed themselves!” She was getting loud again and Akrim was motioning for her to be quiet. “How could that make it better.” She had run out of steam, voice becoming quiet.

Akrim hovered uncertainly, dragging a blanket over her back and shushing her. He tried to swaddle her and she ripped it away from herself, frustrated.

“Knock it off,” she glowered. Akrim tried to lay a hand on her shoulder and she knocked it off. “Don't touch me, just leave me alone.”  He laid on the ground, tail thumping against the bedpost a few times as his head rested by her feet. She curled her legs up onto the bed, tucking her knees in sourly. “Just get out.”

He must have been staring at her, but she just glared at the wall. Eventually he padded out of the room, his tail whipping as he closed the door.

Ashelin rolled over, staring at the wall as she went over the argument and imagined new ones. Pissed off over imaginary debates, going back and forth, acting as both sides. It was circular, looping around with slightly different internal ranting and explanations.

Guilt hit her that she turned this to be all about herself, she was being spoiled, self-centered. She could never just think about other people. 

“Fuck you,” she muttered, though it was only directed at herself. “Fuck you.”

The door soon opened a bit and Akrim slid into the room, carrying something in a metal bowl. In the dark she couldn't make out what it was, and she eyed it suspiciously, shadows seeming like blood.

He ignored her, arranging the candles and assorted tems so that the bowl could sit above them, getting heated. Baking was not a hobby she associated with metalheads, and for good reason if he thought this was going to work.

She stared at the attempt to cook mush above flickering candles as howling and thunderous footsteps swept through the streets. She wrapped herself up in blankets and got comfortable, kicking her boots, belt and bra off into a corner. After a distant howling of wind and infected she asked, “you ever think of killing yourself?”

“Yes,” he didn't even hesitate, staring at the candle light. “I was made for combat,” he added as an explanation, “and in combat you can die to provide success for others.”

“Not like that,” Ashelin grumbled, pulling a pillow beneath her and resting her chin on it. “Self sacrifice is different.” There was a long silence as Ashelin huddled her pillow and Akrim moved candles so little he may as well not have touched them. 

“In that case, yes,” he said again, though this time more reserved, hesitant. He finished adjusting the candles and pulled his arms underneath himself. “When I was first left in Haven I considered it.” Ashelin looked off into a darkened corner as Akrim turned his head to look at her. “What about you, Ashelin?”

“Yeah,” she said finally after a long pause. “I got bullied a lot when I was younger,” she started, slowly at first but picking up speed. “My father wasn't the most powerful back then and I wasn't very good at socializing. I was fairly ugly too. When my grades finally started to slip I just…” she shrugged helplessly. 

She didn't want to look at him. Even though his face couldn't show pity she didn't want to look at him. A bitter feeling clung to her stomach, rising up to her chest and making her shoulders hunch up. She scowled at nothing in particular. She felt angry at herself. Talking about her feelings like this made her feel stupid. She grit her teeth, curling up a bit more under her blanket, fists clenched.

Akrim pulled his elbows onto the bed, resting his chest and arms on it, but he didn't turn to look at her. He looked ahead at the wall ahead of him.

“I'm sorry that happened to you,” he said, “It's not a nice way to feel.”

Just that was enough to make tears start to well up in her eyes and she blinked hard to try not to cry. Her stomach gave an ugly twist and she bit her lip. It was a worthless platitude, utterly worthless, and yet she still wanted to cry about it. It was stupid, why was she like this?

She sat up, pushing down her sickening feelings, coils of it settling as she scratched at her arm.

“It's fine,” she said, and Akrim turned his head slightly in her direction, eyes narrowed slightly. She didn't know if it was simply the reflections of the candlelight but his eyes looked at her, looked away and then back again.

“No, it's not,” each word was said slowly and deliberately, as if he thought she was slow. He got up to sit on the bed like her, tail curled over his feet.

Even though he wasn't saying anything else she was having a hard time not getting upset. He probably did think she was stupid, and she was for saying anything. It was over ten years ago and if she was smart she'd just forget about it. It was just children being stupid and her own insecurities. She was an adult now. 

“If you want to cry you can,” he told her.

“I don't cry.”

“Humans cry over everything,” he drawled, “When they are happy, scared, sore, hungry, sad. You all have large eyes and you cry when sand gets in them.” He rolled his shoulder. “It's a human thing, so if you need to cry less than others then fine, but if you're going to I don't mind. I'm more worried if you can't.”

“Why?”

“Means you might need glasses.”

The edge of her mouth curled up a little at that before she breathed out a sigh through her nose.

“I look ugly when I cry,” she said, resting her hands on her knees.

“Could you then? I've never seen an ugly human before.”

She snorted, smacking his shoulder, and in return he made a strange clicking noise, he was laughing. She leaned into him a bit and his hand went to the bed on the other side of her, not touching her but still acting as support.

“I just feel stupid when I talk about it is all, it's so long ago.”

“History is important, wouldn't you say?”

“You got me there,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. He twisted a bit she she could be a bit more comfortable, his other hand coming up to rest on her arm. “It's not something worth talking about though.”

“Maybe,” he admitted, “but if you decide you want to talk about it, I think it'd be worth listening to.” He was looking at her earnestly and she buried her face against him.

“Thanks,” her arms wrapped around him and she squished her face deeper into his shoulder joint. They stayed like that. The room slowly heated up around them, Akrim’s tail tip curling up before silently settling back on the ground. He didn't seem to mind her stealing his warmth, or maybe he was stealing hers, since she wasn't getting too warm despite their proximity.

“On the job we sometimes found bodies,” she told him, hands digging into his sides. “It brings people around them some closure, to know what happened. Then they can focus on grieving.” He didn't say anything, but his hand rested delicately on her back. “Sometimes I just… have to grieve for them myself. For my own satisfaction. I don't know them, but I affected their lives. The least I could do is let them affect mine.”

Her hands kneaded his flesh and Akrim’s tail gave a harsh flick. His head rested against hers and he wrapped his arm around her more securely.

“This isn't your fault,” he murmured, vibrations from his throat and chest rumbling against her skin.

“It is, I'm responsible for this lot.” She pulled back, and while Akrim didn't impede her he didn't help her either.

“Tess thinks you blame yourself too much,” he told her. “I agree.”

“You and Tess gossiping about me?” she grumbled, turning to sit properly.

“I listen to her,” he said, “and I tell her about my day.” Ashelin rolled her eyes a bit, leaning away from him to examine the side table a bit more. 

Akrim stared at her for a moment. “This didn't affect just Haven, or are you going to accept responsibility for everything? If someone in my hive got it is that your fault? Should I demand an apology?”

“That's not my problem,” she said, Akrim’s tail lashing about at her words.

“Do you think yourself better than me? Than everyone else who saw this coming and couldn't stop it? Are we lesser than you?” His weight was no longer on the bed but focused on his feet, teeth sharp and glinting in the dark. She started to pull away and he grabbed her wrist.

“Stop it.” Her voice was level, even as her fingers twitched and spasmed from his grip.

“What's your answer, are you so much better than everyone else that you could have stopped this?” Akrim’s tail flicked slightly as he loomed over her and his skull gem was dimmer than usual, its normal colour crackling through it now and then. She slumped in his grip, but despite the obvious answer he didn't drop her wrist.

“No.” 

Admitting it made her feel hollow. Akrim dropped her wrist and sat back down.

“Then it's not your fault. It's just something that happened.”

“It's still sad,” she said, rubbing her wrist.

“Yeah.” Akrim put his hand on her shoulder and she didn't shrug him off, letting him pull her closer.

She couldn't bring herself to feel mad, but she pushed him anyway, making him lie back onto the bed. He looked at her, curious as she hovered over him, her hand on his stomach. She threw the blanket overtop of him, petting him through the fluffy texture and laying on him. It didn't help much with his plating, hard edges digging into her slightly. She shoved a pillow into him, and he grumbled that he wasn't a bed, for all the good that did.

The candlelight flickered and shone shadows along the walls. Ashelin tried to make shadow puppets with her hands as stomping across the roof made glass shake in the window frames. She only really knew how to make a rabbit or a butterfly, but that was enough to capture Akrim’s attention and he joined her in casting shadows. He mainly contributed by being a rock, until he caught the jist of what she was doing and made a bird. He apparently got very upset when Ashelin’s hand snake repeatedly ate it; he stopped playing with her after that.

Akrim shifted uncomfortably and Ashelin lifted her head up to check on him, he was looking past her to something in the room and she turned to stare at that instead, glancing at the metal bowl then back to Akrim. He shifted again and Ashelin moved aside to let him wriggle out from under the blankets and check on it.

“Hot,” he said after touching it, and he dropped the bowl on the bed. It was in fact very warm, and now that it was in front of her she could tell it smelled of cocoa.

“What is this?” she asked, poking the top of the substance.

“People food,” he answered, unhelpfully. At Ashelin’s glare he tried to reevaluate it, struggling before saying, “Cookies.”

“Yeah, I don't think so. Nobody is going to be convinced this is a cookie.” She pulled off her other glove and swept a bit into her mouth as Akrim seemed to deflate. “Tastes edible though.”

He cheered up as Ashelin chewed on the substance. She could tell it was shredded coconut, cocoa powder, sugar, and water, but beyond that she wasn't sure if there was anything else. It tasted fine however, at least with how hungry she was. 

“We could make coffee like this,” she told him and he looked at her blankly, obviously disgusted. “Coffee is good, you can shut up.”

“I didn't say anything,” he said, before Ashelin poked him and he fell silent.

If anything the small amount of food just made her hungrier, but she didn't have much room to complain, considering she ate most of it and a presumably hungry metalhead was beside her. That huge meal should have sustained him, but that was a day ago, would he still be hungry? Probably.

She turned to him again, applying pressure to his stomach, pushing down on it as he laid back. It was still distended and fat with food. She rubbed along it, but it was pretty tightly packed. Maybe this was more his natural state, full of food. There was sure to be a lot of animals in the wilds for him to eat, but in this city all that's left is scraps. And the displaced havenites. He tries to move her hand away but she just waves his hand off and continues bugging him. A particularly solid prod makes him growl at her. When she does it again he grabs her arm as he sits up, knocking her back.

“Have you ever eaten a human?” she blurts out, and the way she's presented herself, off balance with no weapons, almost makes her feel like she’s offering herself up on a platter. She tenses up.

“No,” and he sounded almost bored by her question, sliding off the bed to the ground. He tilted his head; upon hearing nothing pushed the bowl towards Ashelin. She raised an eyebrow but relented, heading downstairs.

The stairs creaked slightly as she made her way down in the dark. There was a chill in the air and she wondered if it was just warmer upstairs or if there was a draft. She kept her hand along the wall, taking cautious steps, nervous about each distant noise. The hair on the back of her neck was making it prickle and her footsteps sounded loud. The rooms were pitch black and her candle barely helped. Her stomach was in knots and she sped up, loading ingredients into the bowl and stepping upstairs as the light flickered and distorted her view of family photos on the wall. Her breathing was shallow but even then she felt like she was being too loud.

She slid into the room, a snapping crunching sound meeting her ears, like the breaking of chicken bones. Akrim’s head was ducked under the bed, breaking something.

Maybe she didn't have to worry about him finding food.

He tried to pull his head out to look at her, bumping his head on the frame. His tail swished from side to side before he tried again, ducking and slipping his head out of the gap, chewing on a stick.

“Is that a branch?” she asked, incredulously. Alright so her metalhead was an idiot, that was fine, better for her actually. Or just far hungrier than she had expected.

“Yes,” he said, and swallowed some before she could comment further. She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, checking under the bed. There was a box with the word nature written on the side. There was a piece of paper that she picked up, a long and detailed list. She raised an eyebrow at the bare box and Akrim quietly chewing.

“Good job eating someone's collection.” She sat down, bed creaking under her.

“Thanks.”

They fell into silence after that, Ashelin making some semblance of food for herself while Akrim puttered around the room. His tail swished back and forth, the sharp metal tip glinting in the light. The winds whipped the building, making the place creak and howl too. Some building nearby had loose metal tiles that banged loudly, and thunder roared above the din of those infected crawling through the city.

Ashelin’s hand repeatedly clenched and unclenched and her foot began to ache again. Her feet felt like ice and she curled her legs up on the bed. Akrim’s pacing continued until he finally left for a few minutes, claws tapping the ground slightly. He growled something that sounded like “patrol” but she couldn't be sure. She escaped for a few minutes too afterwards, shaking her hands dry while she looked for a hand towel.

The temperature had rapidly dropped and it was raining. A chill infected everything and some of the windows leaked water onto the curtains. In her search for towels she had found some winter linens in the closet and so she dragged them back to the room. She nearly tripped over a second mattress on the floor that Akrim had dug out from somewhere. It was only by smacking into him that she didn't dive to the floor. There was a scraping noise and he glared at her, wood shavings on his face plating. 

He huffed and picked up the mattress, and seeing no where else, placed it in the floor of the closet. He then took the thick blankets from her and dumped them on it.

Avoiding his spear of a tail slashing back and forth, she tried to set up the blankets neatly, and Akrim slid the shuttered door closed behind her. She grabbed it and yanked it open.

“What's going on?” she asked, voice sharp and ears listening out for something. He had done something similar back at the palace before they were attacked, she reached for her gun and holster.

“Nothing,” he said quickly, “I just wanted to see if the door would close. I think it's safer to sleep in there, just in case.”

Something was obviously happening.

“You can then,” she told him, applying pressure to his arm, trying to get out. Which she did surprisingly easily.

“I will.”

He settled down, head brushing against coats hung up before he looked around expectantly, pulling down one or two to act as cushioning against the wall. Ashelin just grabbed a spare blanket off the shelf and dropped it on his head. It was like he was making some kind of nest. In fact Ashelin was certain when he fetched more covers to string up over the closet rod that he was in fact trying to make some sort of blanket fort, pillows arranged on the inside wall.

She took the time to get some sleepwear from the parents room, using a nightgown as a slightly long shirt, some thick pants and thermal socks with it. As she was getting changed she heard the obvious sounds of footsteps, even through the rain, on the roof. She slowly made her way back.At night they were finely attuned to eco, even more so than usual; they could tell you weren't one of them from a long distance. Sometimes even through walls it seemed like. Though the rain muffled her breathing and footsteps she was almost paranoid about them trying to break in. Glass rattling in anticipation for the kill. 

The closet suddenly did feel safer. Ashelin slipped under the covers, disrupting whatever Akrim had been doing.

“I'll be taking first watch.” His voice sounded growly, but he still tried to sneak some of her warmth, pressed like a breath to her side, his tail tangled under the top blanket. She was a bit too antsy to sleep and the bed hadn't heated up yet, so she was fine with his company and needled him about his food choices. 

“You haven't eaten a person before, Seriously?” she couldn't quite believe his answer, no matter how many times he repeated it. “Too bad, I would have wanted to know what we taste like,” she teased, keeping her voice light in case he'd change his response.

“Well if you're so  _ curious _ there's three  bodies downstairs-” A sharp crack filled the air. The scathing words weren't even properly out of his mouth before Ashelin slapped him, hard enough that his face hit the wall and his plating reverberated for a moment, like bloodlust ringing in her ears. It didn't feel like enough.

“Don't even joke about it,” She hissed.

Akrim glared at her for a long moment, very still. The blood started to drain from her face and fingers. Her stomach dropped, and even the rain seemed far away. This was dangerous. Anger was scary enough, but cold fury was how people died. 

There were no locks, no-one to save her if she called out, and if she did it'd just be worse. She'd been cut before, sometimes you don't even feel it that much if it's sharp enough. Having your arm ripped off, tearing and yanked apart would hurt.

“Hit me again,” Akrim growled, leaning forward, “and I'll scream.”

“Got it,” Ashelin said quickly, keeping her eyes away from his face, automatically lowering her head. 

There was something she was almost more afraid of though, but that had less to do with him being a metalhead than being male. Statistically if it was to happen now would be the time and statistically she'd been dodging that bullet for years. 

He started to move and Ashelin seized up but Akrim merely closed the closet door a bit and slunk over to the other bed, curling up on it. She laid back, staring at the blankets above her. 

“I'm sorry,” she said. 

After no response she turned her head to look at him. His head was raised and he was looking at her.

“You want to come back to the blanket fort?” she rolled onto her side, pushing her upper body off the mattress. 

He slunk to the floor and over to her before he pushed himself under the blankets, making Ashelin squish against the pillowed walls to accommodate him. It felt awkward having him brush past her considering her thoughts previously, especially since her body seemed to be very quick with preparing itself just in case.

“I changed my mind I don't think we can both fit.” Akrim ignored her words and pulled the closet door shut. He stood up a bit under the blankets, letting Ashelin get comfortable on the mattress before deciding how to place himself. He decided upon being under only the duvet, letting Ashelin and the other blankets be beneath him as he settled into a sitting position that was a bit more hunched over than his usual.

“I'll take first watch,” he told her and Ashelin settled down to sleep, slightly colder than before. The candle glinted dimly through the slats but not even the metalhead leaned over her legs could stop the soothing noise of rain calmly hitting the roof from taking an effect on her.

\--

She was groggy, dull thumping of the house hitting her ears along with the sound of the rain. Her face was freezing and she rolled over, pressing her face to the warm pillow. It was colder now, but she had all the blankets covering her. The dull thuds and scraping from above got louder and pierced through her drowsiness. Akrim wasn't in here with her.

She sat up, listening to the hissing and pounding upstairs, blanket pulled up to her chin as she peered through the slats, but as far as she could see he wasn't outside either. She sat there dimly aware she should do something, but she wasn't sure what, and the bed was so warm. Why didn't they find an attic to investigate earlier?

Before she could fumble her way to her gun the harsh beating noises stopped. All was quiet upstairs and Ashelin laid back down, pulling the closet door closed. 

She tried to sleep, unease settling in from every creak of the house. Then dragging footsteps from upstairs, the wind wailing loud enough to drown it stifled itself as she focused on the steps shuffling around. She slid her gun into the closet and sat up in the corner, checking it would be ready to fire. 

The noises stopped, and Ashelin waited, breathing shallowly and waiting for any sounds. The candle was going out and a shadow slipped past it, plunging the room into complete darkness for a moment. There was a slight draft and she tried not to move around due to the discomfort from it. Her back and down her leg were aching already, and she moved slightly to ease it. It might have pulled on some other blanket as a dragging sort of sound filled the room.

It was coming from outside the closet.

She peered out, a large inhuman shape silhouetted by the candlelight, making it hard to see. Akrim... There was something off about him though, form slumped and weary, tail dragging along the ground. He was up on two legs, but his arms looked like he could drop them to the floor any second, and he was moving slowly. She didn't call out to him, but watched his creeping progress into the room. 

There was something she couldn't quite place that made her stomach twist and her hold the gun tighter. Akrim made it to the bed in the room and yanked a sheet off of it, turning back and limping out of the room. His face was completely obscured in shadow, the now familiar glowing eyes and gem missing. He turned to look at her hiding spot and she seized up, but he merely wandered out again.

She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again it seemed the candle had gone out, submerging the room into darkness. The rain had stopped and distantly she could hear the dull swish of blood through her ears. She could also hear what sounded like waves, warm sea air hitting her.

Something dark and cold was around, slipping shallowly around out of sight. She reached out with her fingers, then jolted fully awake when something freezing touched them, raising her voice in alarm before it was choked out, hand cracking into her mouth and throat. Her gun was lost somewhere and she thrashed against the heavy weight, a sound like steam coming out of a pipe assaulting her ears.

“Ashelin, Ashelin! It's me, calm down.” Akrim’s skull gem flickered on as she stopped hitting him in panic, swapping to a confused tapping against his arm as he seemingly made the noise again, releasing her to pat her side. “It's fine.”

Ashelin rubbed at her throat taking in strained breaths as Akrim’s cold hands patted at her and he made the noise increasingly.

“Are you shushing me?” she croaked before righting her voice, “you sound like a broken valve.”

“I sound perfectly functional,” he stopped patting her and buried himself under the covers, making her squirm away.

“You're fucking freezing, get out.”

“You get out.”

They struggled for a bit, rain hard on the roof as Ashelin quickly found the pillows had shifted and the wall was even colder than Akrim, both struggled to get the other person to be the one closer to it. Akrim finally sat up, ruining all the covers and letting in the cold to fix the pillows. 

When he was done with that he took the side with all the pillows and pulled Ashelin against his stomach, sapping her heat.

She huffed and relented, letting herself act as a heater, trying to shrug him off. “Why are you so cold?” she grumbled, giving up and settling in for a while. Her stolen clothes actually shielded her from the most of it, but she turned to look at him, placing a hand to try and find a spot to take his temperature and find a fever. But maybe metalheads tried to freeze out colds instead.

“I wasn't under any blankets.”

“What were you doing?” she asked a little too quickly, trying to get him to look her in the eyes. He paused a little, or maybe he was simply finishing his breath.

“Patrolling.” His tail flicked slightly under the blankets. He didn't say anything else and she glared at him suspiciously. 

“Report what happened.”

“I patrolled.” She took a breath in to say something before Akrim interrupted. “Hey, Ashelin.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I remember how that human proverb ends.” She stayed quiet, the pattering of rain filling her ears. “it doesn't matter, for the tree has fallen.”

She breathed deeply and slowly, body heavy. The wind picked up and the rain was heavier on the roof. The dying candle flickered, sending shadows along the wall. Ashelin turned over. “Goodnight, Akrim.”

“Goodnight, Ashelin,” he responded automatically and Ashelin pulled her sheets up higher, closing her eyes.


End file.
